We’re keeping this recurring piece to do a bit more for those genuinely interested in New York real estate and give my LinkedIn designation a little luster. Taking a note from the easy to absorb nuggets of information in Robinhood Snacks‘ newsletter, here are your RealEstateSnacks so I can make this newsletter tax deductible.
1. Well, well, well how the tables turn, all of you who doubted New York would ever return back to her former glory during the depths of the pandemic. People may have fled the Big Apple during the height of the pandemic, but the city appears to have welcomed back most of the residents it lost. The data suggest about 75% of those who left during the pandemic have been regained or replaced. NYC has seen a net gain of move-ins since July when compared to 2019 level. The city added 629,000 people between 2010 and 2020, with a total of more than 8.8 million residents by the end of 2019. Only 8.4% of US residents reported moving in 2020, a 73 year low. Experts found there were 33,000 more estimated move-outs than the baseline in 2020, but 23,000 more move-ins estimated than expected in 2021.
2. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should come as zero surprise to anyone that apartment rents across the country are soaring. Major cities in Florida saw a 36% jump while the New York City metro area posted a 34% gain. Manhattan apartment rents surged by the most on record as workers committed to finding nicer digs in the city in anticipation of a return to the office. Rents in buildings with doormen jumped 25% to a median of $4,263. In non-doorman properties, the increase was just 7.4%. Studio costs climbed 17%, one-bedrooms jumped 16% and two-bedroom rates were up 26%. The number of new leases, meanwhile, fell 22% from a year earlier to 4,395 as the market reverted to normal seasonal patterns.
3. While many are talking about inflation subsiding in 2022, it’s rising rents that could keep rates up. The next phase of the inflation cycle could be in consumer services: owners’ housing costs are the most significant service component, with a weight of 23%. In the consumer price index, the cost of owners’ housing is rent or the implied rent that owners would have paid if they were renting their home. The owner’s rent series lags the rise in home prices by 6-12 months. Home prices are up roughly 20% in the past year, while owners’ rent is up a mere 2.9%. Owners’ rent increases could easily double in the next year, lifting overall consumer price inflation by far more than what used car and truck prices did in the spring of 2021.
4. And for something questionably useful but lightly pertaining to New York: whenever you cross the path of a black squirrel do you ever wonder what their deal is exactly? Well, wonder no more – here are some black squirrel facts. You can find black squirrels in all five boroughs but they concentrate in areas where an “island effect” can be created like in City Hall Park, Riverside Park, and Roosevelt Island, even though they’re found at a rate of about 1 in 10,000 squirrels. The darker color is due to a recessive gene that causes abnormal pigmentation, theorized to be linked to warmer fur. The black squirrel was once the more predominant squirrel, favored for its superior camouflage in the forest. With urbanization, the gray squirrel blended in easier. The 2018 Squirrel Census in Central Park counted 2,373 squirrels. Within that, 103 black squirrels and 392 cinnamon squirrels were counted. That comes out to about 4% of the population being black squirrels.
And for the two homes I’m ogling this month…
…a stunning 7 bedroom townhome directly facing Prospect Park at 17 Prospect Park West, clocking in at a spicy $12,250,000…
…an entire 10,000 square foot cast-iron building on a cobblestone street in the heart of Soho at 66 Greene Street for a cool $12,000,000…
