Northern Manhattan Rentals - A Market Snapshot for June 2011

This month, The Real Deal featured an article on "Cheaper condos moving in Harlem; Uptown new development inventory is selling; albeit at lower prices."  First, a few facts on the Uptown condo market from the article (Q1 2011 as compared to Q1 2010):

• 55% more condo closings 
• Average sales price is up 5% 
• Average size is down 1%

Now, I started to wonder about the current rental market in Northern Manhattan as well.  I dug into OLR data for rental data.  Read after the jump to see what I found.

As of this morning, there are 694 apartments listed for rent in the neighborhoods of West Harlem, East Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Morningside Heights, and Washington Heights.  The following charts breaks down the rentals by neighborhood.

The Real Deal article also notes that beyond supply and demand, gentrification could be a factor in the "boom-let" happening in Harlem.  I became curious if a search for more amenities at a lower price point also extended into the rental market.  

So (of course) I made another  chart.  This time, I looked at the difference in availability and pricing across several neighborhoods for 'attended lobby' buildings vs 'unattended lobby' buildings.  

I was quite surprised to see the overwhelming majority of rentals to be found in buildings with an attended lobby.  

I believe we're going to see a good amount of activity in this part of Manhattan for the weeks/months (and years) to come.  I'll be very interested to track rental and sales trends for these neighborhoods over the coming months to see What's Moving the Market.

Another few interesting facts about the current rental market in Northern Manhattan:

• West Harlem:  Average rent for a studio up to $3017/month for non-doorman building. 
• Hamilton Heights: average overall rents up 12.35% over May.
• Morningside Heights:  Rents declined by 8.86% from May.
• East Harlem:  $2461/month for doorman buildings is strongest pricing in these neighborhoods.

The bottom line:  

*Morningside Heights should provide good value for tenants right now.

*Investors should continue to seek out West Harlem and Hamilton Heights opportunities.