For new condos, brokers say sticker prices no longer matter
March 01, 2010 07:00AM By Candace Taylor

During the boom, purchasing a new condo was like buying Manolo Blahniks or an Armani suit: Shopping in an elaborate showroom, buyers wouldn’t dream of offering less than the sticker price.

These days, the showrooms are still around, but the process is more like haggling at a flea market.

Asking prices for new condos — the figures quoted in online listings and in advertisements — now have little to do with the final sale price. While developers are reluctant to lower their official prices, units are selling for anywhere from 5 to 30 percent less than the sticker price, brokers say. That’s a huge change from just a few years ago, when the prices of new condos were considered nonnegotiable.

Developers “are not willing to bring down their asking prices, and some have list prices that have been around since the beginning of the recession,” said Laurielle Noel, a sales and listing specialist for Platinum Properties. “If you come in and start negotiating, they can come down, depending on the situation, 15 to 30 percent. The asking price is not really reflecting what they’re closing at.”

In the days before Lehman Brothers collapsed, buyers accepted the high costs of new condos without hesitation. If anything, they assumed prices would soon rise in the booming real estate market, said Ana Maria Sencovici, a sales associate at the Real Estate Group NY. “You really didn’t have much leeway,” she said.

Nowadays, nearly every asking price is negotiable.

“The ask is less important now than it has been in some time,” she said.

Noel, who often represents clients looking to buy new condos in the Financial District, said, “On any given day, I can walk in with a client to several buildings and say, ‘This client is looking for a one-bedroom in the $700,000 range.’ The listing agent will look at the list of apartments priced at around $800,000 or $900,000, and say, ‘You can get this one for that price.’”

Noel recently had an international client who was looking at Financial District apartments in the $1 million range. The buyer ultimately paid just under $1 million for a unit listed at $1.2 million.

Rather than telling the buyers up front what kind of discount is available, some listing brokers say they are “encouraging offers” — a thinly veiled invitation to offer less than the asking price, explained Core’s Kirk Rundhaug, who often represents buyers in new construction buildings.

“They’re telling you, ‘Go ahead and make an offer, and we’ll tell you if it’s too low,’” said Rundhaug. He is also the exclusive sales agent at boutique condo development 32 Clinton, where “there’s a little bit of room for negotiability,” he said.

Many developers have officially adjusted their prices at least once since the Lehman Brothers collapse.

Why don’t they do it again?

Easier said than done, explained Andrew Gerringer, managing director of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s development marketing group.

Unlike ordinary home-owners, developers can’t raise and lower their prices at will — they first have to get permission from their lenders, and amend the offering plan that has been filed with the Attorney General’s office. Without an amendment, a developer can’t advertise prices different from those in the offering plan — not even in e-mail blasts or Web listings.

As a result, it’s often easier to simply negotiate with buyers one-on-one, especially since developers hope to raise their prices again as time goes on.

That was the strategy at Chelsea Enclave, where unit #2B was last listed for $2.49 million in April 2009 after an earlier price cut, according to James Lansill, a senior managing director at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which is handling sales at the project.

The apartment went into contract this fall at $2.025 million, he said, one of several deals where the sales team “did some significant negotiations to get momentum going.”

The developer negotiated big discounts on a few units rather than doing another across-the-board cut, Lansill said, because “once the building reaches a higher percentage sold, we will grow into these prices again.”

Some developers fear that making a deep, public price cut will give the appearance of financial distress.

“They’d rather deal behind closed doors than look like they’re in liquidation,” Noel said.

Moreover, buyers these days insist on negotiating, said Henry Justin, the developer of 211 East 51st Street in Sutton Place. Before the Lehman Brothers collapse, Justin said he was selling units in the building at an average of $1,250 to $1,300 per square foot. He’s now cut his listing prices to around $1,200 per square foot, which means he stands to lose at least $5 million on the project, he said.

Still, he’s finding that he needs to negotiate even further in order to get deals done. “People come into the building and expect you to take 10 percent off,” he said.

Knowing that buyers want to bargain, many developers now price their units with negotiability built in.

“Some keep prices where they are, so it looks like a bigger discount,” Gerringer said. “If you’ve lowered prices already, your negotiability would be much less.”

Still, asking prices have to be competitive, or buyers will simply avoid the building altogether.

“You always have to be within the market,” Gerringer said. “If someone else is at $1,200 a foot and you’re at $1,500 a foot, where is that going to get you?”

How much a developer can negotiate depends on how many units they’ve sold, the flexibility of their lenders, and how long the project has been on the market, according to Kelly Kennedy Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.

As the economy improves, many developers are finding that they don’t have to be quite as flexible on price. “As the market is getting stronger, the negotiability factor is getting smaller,” Mack said.

Lansill said developers are now more likely to give discounts in the range of 4 to 12 percent off the listing price, compared to 20 to 30 percent last summer.

During the worst of the real estate slump, Justin said he sold some units for as little as $1,075 per square foot. Now that his building is 60 percent sold, however, he tries to go no lower than $1,150.

Still, Noel said she tells clients not to automatically exclude a building from their search even if it appears to be priced as much as 35 percent above their price range.

“I tell clients, ‘Look, I’ve brought many clients to these buildings, I know what the real prices are,’” she said. “Most of the time they’re happy to check it out — people always want an upgrade.”

Source: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/the-new-negotiability

Lower Manhattan

$375,000

21 South End Avenue

1-bedroom, 1-bath, 560 sf condo in a postwar elevator building (the Regatta); doorman; unit has private terrace, central air-conditioning and washer/dryer; building has roof deck, laundry and storage; common charges $918 per month; taxes $651 per month; asking price $395,000; 20 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Bill Graizel, Gary Seiden, Regatta New York Realty; Brian Peterson, City Connections Realty)

Midtown

$1.075 million

150 West 56th Street

1-bedroom, 1.5-bath, 916 sf condo in a full-service building (CitySpire Condominium); unit is on the 57th floor with city and river views; building has pool, health club, party room, valet; common charges $800 per month; taxes $87 per month; asking price $1.075 million; 21 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Sarah Worley, Royalton Realty; Tristan Harper, Prudential Douglas Elliman)

“These were European buyers who put an offer [on the apartment] sight unseen at full ask … [but] we almost didn’t close [because] when we went to the walk-through the day before the closing, the apartment was not vacant. There was still furniture, computers, food in the refrigerator … It was only after another round of negotiations that we eventually closed with a hefty amount in escrow until the apartment was completely vacated of all their personal belongings, which happened within days.”

Tristan Harper, Prudential Douglas Elliman

Tribeca

$3.4 million

101 Warren Street

3-bedroom, 3.5-bath, 2,208 sf condo in a new elevator building; 24-hour doorman; concierge; unit has high ceilings and views of the city and the Hudson River; building has roof deck, fitness center, children’s play area; common charges $1,998 per month; taxes $4,440 per year (abated); asking price $3.905 million; 87 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Angeli Dahiya, Heather Cook, Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group; Lyon Porter, The Real Estate Group NY)

“This was an outdoor space search. It was a couple. For both people, really, that was an imperative. They were from Texas [and] were relocating, so … they didn’t know exactly where they wanted to live. We saw properties in almost all areas below the park.”

Lyon Porter, The Real Estate Group NY

Upper East Side

$420,000

120 East 90th Street

1-bedroom, 1-bath, 500 sf condo in a postwar elevator building (the Trafalgar House); 24-hour doorman; unit has southeastern exposure and dishwasher; building has storage and laundry; common charges $475 per month; taxes $304 per month; asking price $465,000; 44 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Ginger Bergel, Trump Sales and Leasing; Sophine Hung, Century 21 NY Metro)

Upper West Side

$595,000

215 West 95th Street

1-bedroom, 1-bath, 550 sf condo in a postwar elevator building (the Princeton House); 24-hour doorman; concierge; unit has new hardwood floors, renovated kitchen and marble bathroom; building has health club, roof deck and laundry facilities; common charges $437 per month; taxes $337 per month; asking price $595,000; 13 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Francisco Menendez, Barak Realty; Kari Kaplan, Prudential Douglas Elliman)

Upper West Side

$1.071 million

308 West 97th Street

3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,253 sf condo in a prewar elevator building; unit has been recently renovated and has windows in every room, hardwood floors and high ceilings; building has roof deck, laundry and live-in super; common charges $576 per month; taxes $295 per month; asking price $1.19 million; 83 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Javier Lattanzio, Time Equities; Kim Wright, Prudential Douglas Elliman)

West Village

$1.15 million

165 Christopher Street

2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,025 sf co-op in an elevator building; part-time doorman; unit has hardwood floors; building has laundry facilities and live-in super; maintenance $1,209 per month; 63 percent tax-deductible; asking price $1.195 million; 23 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Amanda Tarter, the Corcoran Group; Edward Berkise, Barbara Fiorino, DJK Residential)

Compiled by Sarabeth Sanders

Source: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/residential-deals–25

In the past year, New York City renters have come to expect a bevy of incentives, like months of free rent, landlord-paid brokers’ fees, and even — in the case of boutique luxury rental 436 West 20th Street — a butler.

Could these perks be disappearing?

In recent weeks, brokers have reported that landlords are doing away with concessions, and even increasing rents.

“As their vacancies begin to drop, landlords around Manhattan are beginning to test rent increases,” noted Daniel Baum, CEO of the Real Estate Group New York, in a January market report. “Some of the major players, and even a few small outfits, have begun to remove concessions and bump up prices … around $100 to $200 per unit.”

Then, in late February, TREGNY revisited the subject, reporting that some of these tests were successful. “While some properties did return to their original offerings, there were equally as many that did not,” Baum wrote, adding that rents inched up slightly from the previous month and were down only 2.99 percent from February 2009, according to the company’s calculations.

Citi Habitats president Gary Malin told The Real Deal he’s seeing the same phenomenon.

“A decent amount of product has been absorbed in the rental market, and we are now seeing incentives such as free rent or owner-paid commissions disappear on some properties,” Malin said.

This isn’t the first time landlords have tried cutting back on concessions. A few owners gave it a shot last spring, TREGNY reported, but by June, they’d gone back to offering the same old incentives.

So why are concession-free rentals gaining some traction this time around?

First, demand seems to be increasing, said Adina Azarian, the president of rental firm Adina Equities. “Rental brokers are starting to see a pickup in the number of calls they are getting on their advertising efforts,” Azarian said.

It’s notoriously difficult to track rental vacancies, since most data is self-reported by landlords, but inventory appears to be declining a bit. TREGNY estimated in its report that vacancies in doorman buildings fell by 9.65 percent between January and February, and 3.02 percent across doorman and non-doorman buildings.

For its part, Citi Habitats put the citywide rental vacancy rate at 1.59 percent at the end of January, down from 1.84 percent the previous month.

As a result of these factors, “clients have recently been competing with other [applicants] on the same apartments, and bidding wars are not unheard of,” Malin said. “This is especially unusual in the winter months, so it has brokers talking.”

The activity, of course, is centered around the most desirable apartments.

“Renters are being slightly less overzealous about it being a ‘renter’s market’ and are, in fact, realizing that you still have to pay top dollar or a broker’s fee for a desirable rental,” Azarian said.

That realization may also be seeping through the residential market as a whole, though the sales market has to contend with an obstacle rentals don’t face: the difficult mortgage market.

“What is continuing to be the most challenging part of the transaction is financing the deal,” said Francisco Menendez, an associate broker at Barak Realty.

Or, as Wohlfarth & Associates president Rick Wohlfarth put it, “The banks haven’t loosened up their lending practices enough, and many qualified homebuyers are still getting the shaft.” Still, sales brokers, too, are seeing some bidding wars and multiple interested buyers, especially for well-priced properties.

“My customers and I have lost a number of bidding wars in the $500,000 to $1 million range, so it’s clear the buyers are back,” said Mabel Cheah, a sales associate at the brokerage Core. “There is more open-house traffic and requests for appointments.”

Victoria Shtainer, a senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said: “We have sold three apartments in Brooklyn that we had on the market for 10 months.”

Wohlfarth said his company recently sold a high-floor unit at 780 West End Avenue for $200,000 over the asking price, after receiving ten different bids.

“Multiple bids and higher prices are back, if you have the right property to sell,” he said.

At the root of all this activity is not so much a miraculous return to prosperity, but an “attitude change,” and just a general lightening of the mood on the part of buyers, sellers, and renters, said Phyllis Pezenik, a managing director at DJK Residential and vice president of the Manhattan Association of Realtors.

Sellers “have finally absorbed the fact that this is not the market of a few years ago, and they have to adjust their pricing accordingly,” she said. Buyers, in response, “seem to be saying, ‘Time to come off the sidelines and get in the mix.’”

In part, that’s because buyers “feel more confident in their jobs than they did a year ago,” said Rich Bouchner of Bouchner & Co. Real Estate. “I think that we are much closer to equilibrium than we have been in a while.”‘

Industry insiders also noted that parties are popping up more frequently. Harlem’s Livmor Condominium on West 115th Street held its grand opening party on February 25th (Downtown Brooklyn’s Toren was slated to hold its grand opening the same night, but postponed the fête to March due to snow.) Brown Harris Stevens hosted a sushi luncheon at Nobu 57 to market Miami Beach hotel-condo Canyon Ranch, and Core held a party February 16 to celebrate the anniversary of its new Chelsea flagship office.

New Williamsburg development Century Vintage held a broker party Feb. 18. Also in February, several of the city’s major brokerages held their annual awards ceremonies, including Prudential Douglas Elliman’s at Cipriani 42nd Street, the Corcoran Group at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, and Citi Habitats at Scandinavia House.

John Reinhardt, the president and CEO of Fillmore Real Estate, said even recruiting events “have tripled in attendance.”

Still, price increases don’t seem likely in the near term.

“Brokers are much more optimistic and have breathed a sigh of relief as market conditions have improved, but many are still cautious,” said Jorden Tepper, executive director of sales at Century 21 NY Metro. “No one believes that [prices] will be spiking upwards any time soon.”

Steven Ganz, president and co-founder of Aligned Real Estate, agreed. “Sale prices are not really increasing yet, as buyers remain focused on finding a good deal,” he said.

Source: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/the-end-of-free-lunches

The Manhattan rental market showed little movement this past month, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s mid-month February 2010 report, with rents climbing just .19 percent since last month (see the full report below). While the rate of vacancies continued to decrease, particularly among doorman units, which saw inventory drop 9.65 percent month-over-month, the report describes the market as sluggish. “Downward seasonal pressure combined with positive market trends to hold rents flat this month,” the report explained. “Yet… landlords are finding that the bottom of the market is not the reprieve they were hoping for… the rebound is likely to be a much slower process than landlords anticipated.” The most expensive units on the market were non-doorman two-bedroom Tribeca apartments, which had average rents of $7,297 per month, while the lease expensive units were Harlem non-doorman studios, with an average rental rate of $1,394. These figures, are based on data cross-sectioned from over 10,000 currently available listings located below 155th Street, the report indicates. TRD

Source: http://lajii.com/newyork/articles/manhattan-rental-market-flat-tregny-manhattan-rental-market-report-says

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, by Sara

The last week of the month means, yup, another monthly Manhattan rental market report from the folks at The Real Estate Group New York. The last report contained the bombshell claim that landlords were pulling back on concessions and even testing rent increases. But this month’s analysis of how well those increases went is a little less daring. TREGNY reports: “Landlords were beginning to test the market by removing concessions and increasing rents, and it seems that at least some of these tests were successful. While some properties did return to their original offerings, there were equally as many that did not.” So that’s cleared right up! And what are the hard numbers on rent and vacancies?

Rents stayed essentially flat month-to-month, though they’re still down 2.99 percent compared to this period of 2009. Vacancy rates are down, too, by 9.65 percent in doorman buildings and 3.02 percent overall. TREGNY points deal hunters to non-doorman one-bedrooms in Greenwich Village, Tribeca doorman two-bedrooms, and Gramercy Park non-doorman two-bedrooms, all of which are at their lowest prices in more than a year. The current most and least expensive neighborhoods:

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2010/02/23/landlords_see_mixed_success_with_rent_increases_report_says.php

IN the contest for Brooklyn’s priciest condo, a Brooklyn Heights triplex with sweeping Manhattan and harbor views has just taken the prize, with an $8.495 million sale price.

The 9,486-square-foot apartment at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a 900-square-foot waterfront terrace, went to the founder of an investment management firm, who used a limited-liability corporation to keep his name secret. The buyer created a loft with enough square footage to house a neighborhood supermarket by combining three two-bedrooms, a one-bedroom and two studios.

Three of the units, on the building’s 11th and 12th floors, had already been combined by a previous buyer who backed out of the deal after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. That buyer was forced to walk away from a deposit of more than $600,000.

“The original buyers had created a very luxe three-bedroom five-bath apartment with a huge living and dining space,” said Highlyann Krasnow, the sales director for One Brooklyn Bridge. It was about 4,200 square feet. “But this buyer wanted even more square footage,” she said, adding that he more than doubled the apartment’s size by buying three more apartments.

Ms. Krasnow says the buyer plans to use the 12th floor as a living area, adding a screening room and a wine cellar. The 11th floor will have two master suites and an extra bedroom or two, and the 10th floor will be used as a “basement area” with dens and storage — dens and storage, that is, with harbor views.

“We would have never built something this size,” Ms. Krasnow said. “But we’ve done a lot of combinations, and that’s necessary when you have a specialty buyer come in.”

One Brooklyn Bridge, which was converted from a former printing facility of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, sits within an 85-acre park that will be under development for the next several years. About 30 percent of the building’s 438 units have sold, including a $6.6 million penthouse unit bought by Elizabeth Stribling, the Upper East Side real estate doyenne, that laid claim to the title of the borough’s most expensive condo back in 2007.

The Clock Tower building in Dumbo snatched the title in 2008 with the sale of a 3,200-square-foot loft for $7 million. And the Clock Tower may yet outprice One Brooklyn Bridge. The former $7 million unit is back on the market for $8.5, and its triplex penthouse with iconic four-sided clock tower is listed for $25 million.

Jay-Z and Ralph Lauren have both dropped by to get a look at the penthouse, which comes with its own glass elevator and a crow’s nest roof deck.

Read the article online at nytimes.com

BY Jason Sheftell
DAILY NEWS REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENT

That real-estate swagger might just be back. For the first time in two years, top real-estate executives, marketers and salespeople are starting to see strong sales in certain neighborhoods as New Yorkers pull the trigger on home purchases again. In Queens, fourth-quarter housing sales were up 56% from the same time last year, with only a 5% price decrease. In the new-development market, sales are up 176% from the beginning of 2009, and condos in general up 89% from the end of 2008.

“People have a reason to be cocky again,” says Kelly Kennedy Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, still the city leader in the sales and marketing of new condominiums, with average sales reaching as high as $2.7 million. “This is one of the first times ever that very good product in proven locations are in oversupply. Price has finally been pushed to what may be its lowest point, and certain neighborhoods are just safe investments.”

Agreeing with Mack, brokers citywide report traffic up more than 50% at open houses and appointments, the number of contracts signed increasing from a very strong fourth quarter 2009, and sales in the luxury sector up. While prices might be hovering around what they were in 2004, buyers and sellers are coming to terms with the new market and starting to make deals.

Here are four parts of the city and types of housing that are making real estate people smile again.

New condominiums on the upper East East Side

That’s not a typo. The upper “East East” Side is that pocket of New York City between 65th St. and 96th St. east of Third Ave. A few blocks farther from Central Park than ritzy Madison Ave., this area counts good schools, top services, child services and movie theatres as draws.

According to Mack, four condominiums represented by Corcoran Sunshine in the area have had strong activity. Manhattan House (200 E. 66th St.), 515 E. 72nd St./Miraval Living, Georgica (305 E. 85th St.) and the Laurel (400 E. 67th St.) have attracted buyers with finishes and amenities that may not be built again for some time.

“At current absorption rates, we have three years of new condominium inventory,” says Mack, whose company reports 100% more sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the same period in 2008. “This is a proven location that has shown appreciation for the past 100 years. From the ’90s to 2008, prices have increased five times. Until these products sell out, you may not see design-driven new developments with in-house amenities like these built for at least three years, if at all.”

The Laurel, which recently lowered their prices, has one of the better amenity packages citywide. A triathlon-quality training center known as the Trophy Club has a lap pool, resistance pool and duplex fitness center with access to triathlon-training professionals. Gimmick or not, it’s the highest-quality in-building fitness center in the city. Studios list for more than $800,000 with two-bedrooms costing $1.775 million, having just been reduced again.

Deluxe townhouses and 1950s, ’60s and ’70s doorman buildings in Greenwich Village

Brown Harris Stevens superbroker Paula Del Nunzio has good karma on W. 12th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. Known as the city’s top townhouse broker, Del Nunzio sold three townhouses on the street in the past six months, totaling more than $43 million. Not convinced a market upswing caused the sale of these homes (one of which may or may not have been purchased by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), Del Nunzio points to the luxury sector as safe.

“Things of this high caliber will always sell for a higher price than anything else,” says Del Nunzio, who would not elaborate on who purchased these homes, two of which cost more than $15 million. “These homes all had something extremely unique. Sixteen W. 12th St. is 25 feet wide, with huge ceilings and exquisite renovation details.”

At lower price points nearby, one-bedroom and studio deals exist in the many 1960s and 1970s white-brick apartment houses scattered between 14th and Ninth Sts. A large studio with an alcove sleeping area can be had for around $500,000. In the same neighborhood, at 175 W. 13th St., a two-bedroom, one-bath ex-doctor’s office is available for $425,000.

“These buildings may not be architectural stunners, but they have doormen and big spaces,” says Corcoran broker Daren Herzberg, who runs his own team and has sold apartments to rock stars, investment bankers and actors. “They need a lot of work, but they are inexpensive and in top locations.”

Like other brokers, Herzberg reports being much busier than this time last year, and says the good late fall should pave the way for a strong spring.

“We’ve been working hard and waiting a long time for better prices to catch up with the demand,” he says. “Buyers have been on the sidelines, just watching. That was the smart move then. It’s not the smart move now. If people looking to buy don’t act now, they’ll end up paying more.”

Williamsburg - hot again?

About six months ago, a Brooklyn real estate expert predicted that hipsters would not define Williamsburg’s future. They would be priced out. Families and upscale young professionals, he said, would drive the neighborhood’s next life as a hot spot.

Even through difficult times, developers already in the ground with financed projects built larger apartment units, trying to take advantage of the neighborhood’s family potential, proximity to Manhattan, retail infrastructure and improving waterfront.

Similar to the upper East East Side, ready-for-move-in condominiums with distinctive design features near public transportation have seen buying activity grow. Last week, a kickoff party at Warehouse 11, where two-bedrooms go for $537,000, yielded more than 20 offers. The Rialto has sold out, while the Newton has a few units left; both are being sold by the Developers Group.

“People are realizing that this is a Manhattan neighborhood with Brooklyn prices,” says Highlyann Krasnow, a partner with the Developers Group. “The type of people moving here? Cool, hipster parents. Creative types who work in advertising, marketing and technology.”

Remarking that there is less facial hair and straight-leg plaid pants, Krasnow also thinks apartment inventory will disappear faster than people imagine.

“What people don’t realize is that beyond the two big projects at the Edge and Northside Piers, there isn’t a lot of inventory left on the new-development side,” she says. “Most of our smaller projects are sold out. I think we’ll see the new projects delayed by the economy get off the ground here sooner than other places.”

The silent sleeper: Murray Hill resales

Never considered cool like Williamsburg, Murray Hill has always had one thing going for it - convenience. You can get uptown or downtown on the East Side, and Grand Central Terminal drives the pied-a-terre market by providing small, fairly priced apartments for people who want city living but work in places such as White Plains or Stamford, Conn.

Now it has something else - low prices for relatively huge apartments. Herzberg, for example, has a mint-condition 20th-floor, three-bedroom, two-bath with Chrysler Building views for $1.425 million. Another Murray Hill listing shows a two-bedroom duplex with two entrances and a Juliet balcony in the Penny Lane building on 24th St. for $575,000.

“No one ever says they want to live in Murray Hill,” says Herzberg. “That means very good deals for the people who do.”

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/01/29/2010-01-29_realestate_leaders_see_good_buys_in_select_neighborhoods_.html

Yes we’ve been blitzed by rental market reports lately, but the scary numbers for landlords at the end of ‘09 make the findings in The Real Estate Group New York’s January Manhattan rental report feel almost uplifting. Almost. Rents have stayed relatively flat month-to-month, though they have fallen 6.5 percent in non-doorman buildings and 10.5 percent in doorman buildings since last year. This month the brokerage reports that inventory is down 17.66 percent, and—here’s the interesting bit—landlords are confident enough that the world isn’t ending that they’ve started creeping out of their fallout shelters to strip the concessions out of their listings and start increasing rents by $100 or $200 per unit over previous months. TREGNY circumspectly comments that “whether or not Manhattan’s rental market can handle these increases is still yet to be seen.” Indeed.

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/26/report_claims_manhattan_landlords_testing_rent_increases.php

Ask and ye shall receive: Tenants who bargained their landlords down
By JUSTIN ROCKET SILVERMAN

Renters of New York, rejoice! The long tyranny of ever-rising rents is crumbling under the strain of global recession.

Once it was a question of how much the rent would increase in any given year. Now, for the first time in recent memory, tenants are demanding lower rents as they reach the end of their leases — and they’re getting them. Some landlords are even being proactive, lowering rents before they are asked.

It’s a whole new city out there.

“We started hearing about this trend a year ago,” says Daniel Baum, CEO of The Real Estate Group New York and an authority on city rentals. “Since then, a lot of tenants have been successfully renegotiating rents.”

So successfully, it turns out, that rents for Manhattan apartments in 2009 fell 5.6 percent, according to market researchers at Reis Inc. The shock of 9/11, by contrast, only led to a 3.8 percent reduction in rents.

A new report by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate found the average rent for a studio fell 1.8 percent to $2,253. A one-bedroom in Manhattan in the last quarter of 2009 fell 6.8 percent to $3,026.

Seems there’s nothing like global economic upheaval to make that dreamy West Village apartment more affordable.

It’s all great news if you’re about to renew a lease — but what if you’re midway through your contract? “Traditionally, an owner is not going to renegotiate a lease midterm,” explains Baum. “It’s difficult to have the owner lower a price you’ve already agreed to pay.”

A better strategy is to bring up the issue of price before signing on for another year. It’s not 2007 anymore, and an apartment that might have seemed a good deal then could now be a rip-off.

Just ask these savvy renters . . .

Jordanna Dworkin, 32
Pilates instructor and acupuncturist
One-bedroom, Upper East Side, 77th Street and Second Avenue
Old rent: $2,200
New rent: $1,800

A New Yorker for more than a decade, Dworkin’s rent has only gone up — never come down. That includes in her current space, which she moved into in November 2007.
So when the lease renewal arrived last fall, she expected yet another hike. Instead, the landlord asked for the same $2,200-a-month rent.

“I assumed I was winning since the rent was staying the same,” she says. “But then I did a little detective work.”
Talking to her neighbors, she discovered an identical apartment in the building was on the market for $400 less than she was paying. She called her landlord and asked if he could match the rate for her place. He agreed without hesitation, and now Dworkin is keeping the apartment she loves — and saving $4,800 a year.

TONY FELZEN, 35
Landlord
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Note to fellow landlords: Wake up!

Landlord Felzen, 35, a native New Yorker, manages a three-story apartment building in Williamsburg. He realized back in August that rents in his hip Brooklyn neighborhood were no longer skyrocketing — quite the opposite. He decided to pre-emptively offer all his tenants a break on their monthly rent. Tenants who were paying $3,000 were informed their rent was dropping to $2,750.

“I like all my tenants a lot,” he says, “and if I was going to give a discount to one, it seemed fair to give it to them all.”

HELAYNE SEIDMAN
Rosemary Siciliano and son Alessandro in their Midtown West apartment.

The way Felzen sees it, by lowering rent even $100 per unit, he loses $1,200 annually in income. It’s not an insignificant amount — but still far less than the loss of having even one unit sit empty for a month or more.

Also, he explains, getting a new tenant costs money, especially now that brokerage firms are asking landlords to pay the finder’s fee, instead of having the renter pay the cost.

“My fellow landlords should not wait until it’s too late,” he says. “When tenants come to you about a reduction, they are already thinking of leaving and are looking around for a better deal. You might lose money by reducing the rent, but you might end up with an empty apartment or a bad tenant if you don’t. It’s the principle of the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.”

ROSEMARY SICILIANO, 47
Furniture designer
One-bedroom, Midtown West, 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue
Old rent: $2,200
New rent: $2,000

Siciliano had been sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her 15-year-old son, Alessandro, and dog, Dakota, for 21/2 years when a surprise came in the mail with the lease renewal. She was expecting a slight rent increase — that’s what usually happened each year. But this time, there was no increase. Nor was the rent staying the same. Instead, the landlord was volunteering a $200 reduction! “That unexpected reduction gave me the confidence to ask them to lower the rent even more,” she says.

The landlord wanted to know if she was committed to renewing the lease before offering any further discounts. That got Siciliano wondering what other deals might be out there. Quite a few, it turned out, including a two-bedrooms renting for only a few hundred more than she was paying for a one-bedroom. She decided it was the time to upgrade. She found a two-bedroom in a luxury high-rise, where — even better — the landlord offered the first two months free. By signing a two-year lease, she got four months free, prorated over the life of the lease. Spread out over the two years, she is saving more than $15,000.

JANEAN MANN, 30
Web developer
One-bedroom, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; Huntington and Smith streets
Old rent: $1,600
New rent: $1,500

“All you have to do is ask,” says Mann of the apartment she found in November after a long search. The listing said $1,600, and she was ready to pay that price for the right space.

This ground-floor apartment certainly fit the bill. The kitchen was spacious enough to accommodate her baking, and her two cats dug the large backyard.
Yet after the landlord mentioned that the place had actually been empty for a while, Mann figured it was worth a shot to ask for a discount. “I felt pretty confident asking for a rent reduction after he told me the place had been empty for a few months.” He immediately agreed to cut $100 off the asking price, and she signed the lease for a full year.

JONATHAN KRIEGER, 29
Managing director, commercial real estate
One-bedroom, Union Square, 16th Street and Fifth Avenue
Old rent: $3,700
New rent: $3,500

Krieger is no stranger to the art of bargaining — he works in commercial real estate, after all. He moved into his swanky pad in the summer of 2008, charmed by the large space and balcony overlooking Fifth Avenue. Yet when his lease came up for renewal a year later, the economy had gone south and a negotiation began.
He and his landlord carried on a long text-message exchange before settling on the new rent. At first, Krieger accidentally texted an offer of “2,300” instead of “3,200,” and the landlord, insulted, felt he was being unreasonable. In the end they had a good laugh over it, and the landlord ultimately agreed to shave $200 off the monthly rent.

“If anyone signed a lease a year and a half ago, they are paying too much,” says Krieger. “Now the playing field is equalizing, and tenants aren’t getting screwed. It’s more fair for everyone.” In addition to the rent decrease, Krieger asked his landlord to sweeten the deal by installing a washer/dryer in the apartment. Now, in addition to paying $200 a month less in rent, Krieger estimates he is saving an additional $100 every month on laundry bills.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/down_with_rent_mq6aQXz1B7G0u9YYkl6lNJ

As New York City residential renters reach the end of their leases, many are are getting their rents slashed. Rents dropped in the fourth quarter of 2009 over the same quarter in 2008. “A lot of tenants have been successfully renegotiating rents,” said Daniel Baum, CEO of TDG/TREGNY. Prudential Douglas Elliman’s rental market report, released today, says the average monthly rent of a Manhattan apartment in fourth-quarter 2009 was $3,789, 4.3 percent less than $3,958 in the same quarter of 2008. The best way to get the landlord to drop the rent is to hit him up at the end of the lease, Baum said. “Traditionally, an owner is not going to renegotiate a lease mid-term,” he noted. Another strategy to receive lower rents is to check out comparable prices in the building. Jordanna Dworkin, who rents a studio on the Upper East Side, found that an identical unit in her building was being rented for $400 less than she was paying. She immediately called her landlord and he agreed to lower her rent — saving her $4,800 a year. [Post]

Source: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/tenants-ask-for-and-receive-lower-rents

Manhattan rentals prices continued to plunge in 2009, according to a report released this month. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.

A year-end report on the Manhattan rental market shows few surprises.

“What we found for the year ending in 2009 was what most consumers would expect, which is fairly rapid price deceleration in the rental market,” said Daniel Baum, chief executive officer of the Real Estate Group of New York.

The firm’s third-annual year-end report tracked rentals in neighborhoods from Battery Park City up through Harlem at 155th Street. It focused on studios, one bedrooms, and two bedrooms, both in doorman and non-doorman units.

“A lot of the studio apartments, the smaller apartments and even the one-bedroom apartments, which will typically be used as shares for multiple younger people, were affected considerably,” Baum said. “There were a lot of layoffs that took place in the city, let alone a lot of hiring freezes that did not allow for new people to come into the market.”

The average rent for a doorman studio in 2009 was $2,325 and $1,944 for a non-doorman studio. Overall, rents for studios, one and two bedrooms fell approximately six percent in non-doorman buildings and dipped nearly seven percent in doorman properties.

“We saw a lot more activity and stability for non-doorman properties where people were looking to save money and cut back, than we were in luxury high-rise market,” he said.

Seasonal trends were also off track. The report did not see the typical surge in demand that starts early spring and continues through the end of summer.

Looking forward to 2010, Baum sees the beginning of the year to continue on the same track as 2009, but expects the market to shift in the spring.

“Still increased inventory, still a lot of concessions being offered; however, I think we will see a rebound in the spring of 2010, for the seasonality that we did not see last year,” Baum said. “A lot of the financial markets are recovering. A lot of them are looking to hire new employees again out of school. The question is whether or not that demand will be enough to support what is already existing, as vacancies in the market place and increased rents going forward.”

Source: http://www.ny1.com/5-manhattan-news-content/ny1_living/real_estate/111835/manhattan-rental-prices-dropped-in–09–report-finds/

NEW YORK CITY-As a gauge of the multifamily sector’s health, a trio of new reports on Manhattan apartment-unit sales offer some encouraging indicators and dovetail with a recent report on the island’s rental market and Real Capital Analytics data on apartment property transactions nationwide. The fourth-quarter 2009 Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview shows volume up 10.9% over the prior quarter, while both Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales and the Corcoran Group say Q4 closings showed a year-over-year gain. Inventory levels have also dropped, says the Douglas Elliman report, which is prepared by Miller Samuel.

“This quarter, there is reason to be hopeful that the significant devaluation we have tracked since the demise of Lehman Brothers is coming to an end,” writes Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman in her firm’s report, prepared in partnership with PropertyShark.com. Although Q4 prices ebbed on both a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis, “the rate of decline has slowed,” says Hall F. Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens, in a release.

The Douglas Elliman report says the average sales price for Manhattan apartments was $1,296,156, down 12.7% from $1,485,102 year over year and down 2.1% from $1,323,462 in Q3. The median sales price of $810,000 reflects a 10% year-over-year decline and a 4.7% quarterly drop from $850,000 in Q3; the declines were more pronounced for condominiums than for cooperatives.

Brown Harris Stevens puts the borough-wide average at $1,324,504, off 4% from Q3 and down 9% from the same period in 2008, although its report says that condo prices showed a slight increase year over year. Corcoran reports a 13% drop in median co-op prices from the market peak in Q3 ’08, and a 22% decline in median condo prices from that sector’s peak a year ago. On the other hand, the firm motes a 48% year-over-year increase in closings.

“Improvement in the national economy, rising stock market and mortgage rates at historic lows have all played a role in the improvement of the Manhattan housing market second half of 2009,” says Jonathan Miller, president/CEO of Miller Samuel, in a release. Dottie Herman, president/CEO of Douglas Elliman, notes in a release that “unlike the rest of the country where there is an abundance of inventory, New York City’s listing inventory fell 25% from the same time last year. We believe that improved economic conditions and a strong belief in New York City all played a role in improving our housing market.”

Adds Willkie, “It’s important to remember the lag time between when contracts are signed and when they close, and that this report doesn’t fully reflect the current state of the market. As we continue to see an increase in new deals, we have even more reason to be optimistic about the strength of the New York residential real estate market.”

In late December 2009, the Real Estate Group of New York, which tracks the rental market, noted that asking rents in Manhattan continued to buck the seasonal trend by remaining flat compared to the prior month. Doorman apartment units declined 5.79% compared to December ’08 and 1.19% from November of last year, while non-doorman units saw a year-over-year decline of 1.74% and actually rose 0.87% from November ’09.

“Manhattan’s rental market appears to be stabilizing to some extent,” according to the TREGNY report. “Many of the aggressive incentives that were previously being offered this year have been scaled back and landlords seem to be increasingly comfortable with their situations. Though the outlook for 2010 is still uncertain, the data does offer some hope for improvement.”

Looking at sales of multifamily buildings rather than individual units, RCA’s most recent monthly report, reflecting year-to-date data through November ’09, showed Manhattan lagging behind Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and tertiary Southeast markets with volume of $530 million. Nationally, sales of significant apartment properties totaled $1.3 billion in November, down slightly from October but up notably from monthly figures recorded earlier in ’09, according to RCA. “Preliminary data indicates that December could wind up being the most active month of 2009,” the firm says.

Source: http://www.globest.com/news/1572_1572/newyork/182944-1.html

Think the dropping of a big fancy ball means the real estate industry can forget about a horrific 2009? Not so fast!
Tomorrow the brokerages will release their quarterly sales reports for the Manhattan market, but before that, The Real Estate Group New York is tying a bow on the bag of flaming dog poo that was the Manhattan rental market.

The brokerage’s year-end rental report is out, and it plays like a greatest hits collection of landlord miseries. Rents? Down. Concessions and incentives? Up. The traditional summer surge? Largely nonexistent. The downward spiral of prices is cushioned by the report’s failure to account for freebies offered to renters, but we doubt there’s much room for positive spin for building owners.

As for 2010 predictions, TREGNY expects a “slow start,” but sees potential. Or maybe they’re just banking on the power of positive thinking?

It was a year of bargain hunting after so many moons of nonstop escalating rents. On the neighborhood level, TREGNY writes, “This desire for bargains drove deep discounts in traditionally less expensive neighborhoods such as Midtown, the East Village and the Lower East Side as landlords attempted to keep their properties competitive.”

Here’s the hood-by-hood numbers.

Source: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/around-town/real-estate/Rent_Too_High___09_Manhattan_Rental_Report_Has_the_Answer_-80622287.html

The 2010 rental market may is expected to start off slow, though there is potential to see a return to stability, according to the 2009 year-end report from TDG/TREGNY, released today (see full report below).

The Manhattan Rental Market report, which conflates the group’s monthly Manhattan rental market reports, shows that seasonal rental trends were less noticeable in 2009 than other years, with the summer showing only a slight uptick in activity compared to the rest of the year. Crucial to the rental market’s future improvement, the report says, is how other segments of the Manhattan economy perform in the coming months.

“The most important factor for a market improvement is employment,” the report says. “As it steadily improves, we can expect the rental market to do the same.”

Overall, the 2009 rental prices show downward momentum from 2008. Rents on doorman studios declined the most year-over-year, with average rents this past year clocking in at 8.12 percent lower than 2008. Doorman units saw significant declines in rent due to renters’ interest in finding bargain homes, according to the report.

“[The] desire to be more frugal during the recession led to significant discounts in doorman properties,” the report says. “Landlords chopped rents and added incentives to make these units appeal to value-minded shoppers.”

Although non-doorman unit rents declined as well, with two-bedroom rents dipping 6.19 percent, the decline year-over-year was not as significant as what was seen among doorman units, according to the report, which utilizes a cross-section of over 10,000 listings in order to determine its findings.

Officials at TDG/TREGNY did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TRD

Source: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/2010-residential-rental-market-starting-off-slow-tdg-tregny-report-shows

Think the dropping of a big fancy ball means the real estate industry can forget about a horrific 2009? Not so fast! Tomorrow the brokerages will release their quarterly sales reports for the Manhattan market, but before that, The Real Estate Group New York is tying a bow on the bag of flaming dog poo that was the Manhattan rental market. The brokerage’s year-end rental report is out, and it plays like a greatest hits collection of landlord miseries. Rents? Down. Concessions and incentives? Up. The traditional summer surge? Largely nonexistent. The downward spiral of prices is cushioned by the report’s failure to account for freebies offered to renters, but we doubt there’s much room for positive spin for building owners. As for 2010 predictions, TREGNY expects a “slow start,” but sees potential. Or maybe they’re just banking on the power of positive thinking?

It was a year of bargain hunting after so many moons of nonstop escalating rents. On the neighborhood level, TREGNY writes, “This desire for bargains drove deep discounts in traditionally less expensive neighborhoods such as Midtown, the East Village and the Lower East Side as landlords attempted to keep their properties competitive.” Here’s the hood-by-hood numbers.

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/04/rent_too_high_09_manhattan_rental_report_has_the_answer.php

Volume 22, Number 34 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | January 1 - 7, 2010

The owner of 69 Reade St. has filed an application to demolish the building.

On the demo block
Eight months after a five-story Tribeca building partially collapsed, the owner of the 154-year-old loft building has filed for a permit to demolish the remaining portion of the structure.

Property owner Aharon Vaknin filed for a full demolition permit with the Department of Buildings on Dec. 24. He plans to build an eight-story hotel or dormitory building on the 69-71 Reade St. site between Broadway and Church Sts.

Some of the vacant structure collapsed with 71 Reade in the early-morning hours of April 30, causing no injuries but crushing cars parked on the street. The building, which lies in the Tribeca South Historic District, received a D.O.B. violation in 2008 for having a 1-inch-wide crack that ran 10 feet up the side.

Erratic rents
In the increasingly unpredictable residential real estate market, the average rental price of doorman and non-doorman units in Soho and Tribeca — the city’s most-expensive neighborhoods for renters — saw both major gains and losses over the last month.

According to the Real Estate Group New York’s monthly market report, sharp increases and declines were recorded in Soho, with the submarket posting a 2.6 overall drop for the average price of all unit types.

Doorman apartments in the tony neighborhood plummeted the most, with the average price of studios decreasing by 10.6 percent (to $2,435 per month), one-bedrooms by 10 percent (to $4,394) and two-bedrooms by 8 percent (to $7,206). However, Soho’s non-doorman units fared relatively well, with the average price of studios increasing by 10.1 percent (to $2,298 per month) and one-bedrooms growing by 8.8 percent (to $3,840). Non-doorman two-bedrooms in the neighborhood dropped by 5.9 percent (to $4,646).

In Tribeca, all the unit types combined posted an average increase of 3.2 percent, with non-doorman two-bedrooms climbing by 9.2 percent (to $7,568 per month) and doorman two-bedrooms by 5.6 percent (to $6,029).

After struggling in recent months, rents on the Lower East Side grew by 3.9 percent overall — with every unit type up except doorman studios.

Other notable increases included Village doorman two-bedrooms (up 6.9 percent), Financial District non-doorman two-bedrooms (up 9 percent) and Battery Park City doorman studios (up 13.6 percent).

Drops occurred at Village non-doorman studios (down 3.3 percent), East Village doorman studios and two-bedrooms (down about 7.2 percent combined), and Financial District doorman studio, one- and two-bedrooms (down about 8.7 percent combined).

by Avi - December 23, 2009 at 2:28 am

Average rents for small apartments on the Upper West Side dropped considerably again this month, with studios in apartment buildings without doormen falling more than 5% month-to-month. Larger apartments, however, actually got more expensive, according to the The Real Estate Group of New York (TREGNY), which put out a report on Monday about December rents. Two-bedrooms in non-doorman buildings were actually renting for about 6% more in December than they were in November. (One notable exception for small apartments: one-bedrooms with doormen increased in price by nearly 2% in December). The numbers jump around quite a bit from month to month, however, so it’s difficult to determine whether these trends will last. The report is based on thousands of listings for rentals in Manhattan and omits ultra-luxury apartments.

One other trend the report found: inventories of non-doorman apartments throughout Manhattan jumped about 6% this month, which could lead to cheaper rents in the future. If you’re in the market for a non-doorman rental, you might get a better deal or be able to swing more incentives because landlords are looking to fill their inventory.

The report does not take into account incentives offered to renters to sign a lease. Those incentives have been notable on the Upper West Side in recent months — the new Columbus Square developments, for instance, have been offering three months free rent — though TREGNY says that incentives are starting to go away. In fact, the group seems to think things are looking up for landlords despite a brutal 2009.

“Many of the aggressive incentives that were previously being offered this year have been scaled back and landlords seem to be increasingly comfortable with their situations,” the report states. “Though the outlook for 2010 is still uncertain, the data does offer some hope for improvement.” (Photo by Avi)

Source: http://westsideindependent.com/2009/12/23/report-small-apartments-on-uws-keep-getting-cheaper/

By Dawn Wotapka

Manhattan’s two-bedrooms have long been popular for young professionals and couples with a young child. But the market appears to benefiting as renters double up to shave costs.

In such addresses lacking a doorman, December’s rents dipped 1% from a year earlier to $3,672, better than a 3.8% drop for studios. For two-bedrooms boasting a doorman, asking rents declined 4.81% to $5,086, outperforming a near 7% drop for studios, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s December Manhattan Rental Market Report.

Falling rents have also given renters long stuffed into small apartments the chance to upsize. “It seems that renters took the advice we gave last December to heart and traded-up,” says the report. “Two-bedroom units have continued to remain the most stable size category, holding prices again this month and actually increasing their average price by 1% since November.”

At an average $7,568, the TriBeCa neighborhood downtown offers the most expensive non-doorman average for two bedrooms. Studios come in at $3,608, but they’re typically tiny and there’s no one to split the rent and power bills. Rent sharing is a better deal in Harlem, where two-bedrooms average $1,961 a month. Studios come in at $1,300, making putting up with your roomie’s late-night parties more worth it financially.

Throw in the door opener/package delivery service and the priciest two-bedroom average is $7,208 in SoHo. Harlem is again the cheapest studio: $2,808, according to the report that looks at more than 10,000 listings below 155th St. and priced under $10,000 per month. The figures exclude concessions such as a month of free rent.

Of course, warns Jamie LeFrak, there’s the risk of being stuck with the entire rent if one of the roomies get the pink slip. “Landlords will be more than happy to charge the full rent to the other tenant,” says Mr. LeFrak, whose family owns tens of thousands of units in the region.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/12/23/demand-relatively-stable-for-manhattan-two-bedrooms/

By Oshrat Carmiel

Before we close the book on 2009, brokerages everywhere want to leave you with some December market stats to take into the new year. Consider it their coal in your stocking! The good folks at The Real Estate Group New York have released their latest rental report, which, actually, attempts to be as cheery as possible. Rents mostly stayed flat month-to-month. Compared to last December, doorman unit rents have fallen 5.79 percent, but non-doorman units are down only 1.74 percent. Renters have responded by going for the doorman units, pushing the non-doorman vacancy rate up by more than 6 percent this month. As usual, none of these figures factor in incentives, but according to TREGNY, the more aggressive incentives of early ‘09 are no more anyway, and landlords are settling in to this bumpy ride with less hitting of the big red panic button that dispenses free rent.

Downtown is still where the pricing is highest, and another odd trend from November continues: non-doorman studios in Tribeca are still more expensive than doorman ones. The consistency perhaps gives the lie to our drunk chart guy theory, so it’s a head-scratcher. While pondering, click through to the full report for more neighborhood-specific nuggets. As always, reports of what it’s really like out there on the rental market will be welcomed with gratitude, and the itchy sweater our grandmother knits us for Christmas, if anyone wants it.

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2009/12/22/rental_market_is_stable_enough_for_christmas_to_proceed.php

By Oshrat Carmiel

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — Manhattan rents fell as much as 7 percent in the year ended Dec. 15 as the recession helped some tenants move up to larger apartments for less.

Rents for studio apartments dropped 7 percent to an average of $2,247 a month in the period, the Real Estate Group of New York said today in a report. One-bedroom apartments fell 5.6 percent to $3,262. Both figures are for buildings with doormen.

“The biggest difference between this year and last year is the amount of inventory,” said Andrew Barrocas, chief operating officer of the Real Estate Group of New York.

Rents in Manhattan are falling as unemployment climbs. Seasonally adjusted joblessness in New York City rose to 10 percent in November, the state Labor Department reported Dec. 17. The city lost 25,200 finance-related jobs, including banking, securities and commodities, in the year ended Nov. 30, including 700 last month.

In buildings without doormen, studio apartments fell by 3.8 percent to $1,921, while one-bedrooms fell less than 1 percent to $2,636.

New luxury rental buildings with amenities such as doormen include the 1,359 unit Silver Towers on West 42nd street as well as 808 Columbus, part of a five building complex in development on the Upper West Side, Barrocas said.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7DCC9HBnBrk&pos=9