{"id":2003,"date":"2015-05-31T01:18:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2023-07-22T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T15:38:08","slug":"the-price-of-convenience-for-manhattan-apartment-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/the-price-of-convenience-for-manhattan-apartment-hunters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Convenience for Manhattan Apartment Hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the tight inventory of New York City apartments<\/a>, the scramble to find that perfect unit (at a reasonable price) is daunting. However, before you start scouring online, take some time to think about your future roommates. Even though there is a \u201cconvenience premium\u201d on most apartment features, this price of convenience is significantly higher for larger apartments (think two bedrooms) than for smaller apartments.<\/p>\n It turns out that satisfying a group of three or four people is significantly harder than compromising with a single roommate. Some people might absolutely need laundry in the building. Other people could care less. Because of these disagreements, many of the more \u201cinconvenient\u201d apartments don\u2019t receive as much exposure or demand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s commonly known that studios<\/a> are among the most expensive apartments on a per-square-foot basis (around 10% more) in the city. However, even though one<\/a> and two-bedroom apartments<\/a> are similarly priced for their size, there is a larger \u201cconvenience\u201d premium in two-bedrooms. Taking advantage of this, what can renters expect to get paid for, and what kind of discounts could they see? We\u2019ve taken a look at three different areas of potential value.<\/p>\n One major point of inconvenience for a walkup is certainly the number of flights to the apartment. When taking a look across Manhattan<\/a>, we see a fairly persistent trend across all apartments relative to the floor. While the first floor is generally cheaper than the second or third floors (because of the lack of privacy on the ground floor), the highest floors (ie, 4th<\/sup> floor+) are even cheaper. For studios and one-bedrooms, this effect is relatively small. For two bedrooms, though, there could be a real bargain. Because of the difficulty of finding three people willing to trek up four floors, we see a discount of around 12% for two-bedroom walkups on the 4th<\/sup> floor. This can amount to roughly $400 in savings on rent (or $130\/person, if three people were living there).<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Overall, two-bedroom apartments on the first floor are the most expensive (relatively). For studios and one-bedrooms, the third floor is most expensive.<\/p>\n Another point of major contention could be having a laundry in the building. Some people absolutely need it, while others are happy sending their laundry down to the local cleaners. As a result, many apartments without laundry in building might not get the same \u201clooks\u201d from renters who are trying to satisfy the entire group. We see that even though the laundry premium less clear for studios and one-bedroom apartments (satisfying one or two people is significantly easier than three), the effect is sizable for two-bedroom apartments. In fact, we see a premium of around 10 to 20% (depending on location) for laundry in building. This could roughly equate to $300 to $600 dollars per month.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Most people might know that if you\u2019re looking for an apartment in the Upper East Side<\/a> or Midtown<\/a>, you can find cheaper apartments on the extremes (east or west). But, how much of a discount do you get? We\u2019ve noticed that while the discounts are decent for studios and one-bedrooms, they really kick in for two-bedroom apartments. Again, like the flights of stairs, finding a group of people willing to live farther away from the livelier neighborhoods or the subway is much harder.<\/p>\n On the upper east side, we see that there is a huge discount (on a percentage basis) for each avenue east past Lexington for walkups. We ignore the avenues west of Lexington because of the Central Park premium (which often results in astronomical prices). Then, we see that even though there is some effect for studios and one-bedrooms, the discounts are really evident for two-bedroom apartments. Additionally, we notice that this two-bedroom effect isn\u2019t nearly as large for high-rises versus walkups. This is because the demographics of people looking for two-bedroom apartments in high-rises are more skewed towards families (or wealthy individuals) instead of a set of roommates. If you\u2019re in the market for a 2-bedroom, you might be able to save $350\/block.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n We see similar effects in Midtown East<\/a> and West. Because the areas become more commercial\/less lively as you go farther east and west (and because you\u2019re farther away from the subways), there is a large discount per avenue. This discount is much more pronounced for two-bedrooms (but not as prevalent for high-rise apartments).<\/p>\nThe Roommate Premium<\/h2>\n
The Number of Flights<\/h2>\n
Laundry Unit in Building<\/h2>\n
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Longer Walks and \u201cCommercial\u201d Areas<\/h2>\n
Upper East Side<\/h3>\n
Midtown East and West<\/h3>\n