Manhattan rents are flat, Brooklyn rents and sales prices are both up more than 10 percent September to September and Queens is about to become the new Brooklyn according to appraiser Jonathan Miller.
Adding fuel, the City Council this week gave final approval to a $3 billion, 5850 apartment development plan for Willets Point and another $400 million, 1000 unit project replacing the graffiti covered (on purpose) 5pointz warehouse in Long Island City. Then, to top it off, the Council zoning committee reached a deal for another 2200 unit, billion dollar development on Hallets Point.
The good times seem to be rolling for hotel construction as well, with the number of units projected to increase 10 percent to more than 90,000 in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. Occupancy rates are currently running 84 percent, but tourist visits are only projected to rise about 5 percent by the time the new units are available. Hmmm. Average room rates, meanwhile, are up about 4 percent to $238 a night.
Affordability is on everyone’s mind and Trulia.com, the national real estate listing site, has found that the middle class really cannot afford home prices in big cities. The good news is that San Francisco is less affordable than New York. The bad news is that only 2.5 percent of housing for sale in Manhattan is affordable to the median income family, and only 25 percent of housing in the New York-NJ Metro area.
Have a drink and talk about the market with our friends at CHIP at 6 p.m. November 14th in The Morgan Library. RSVP at 212 838-7442.