Upper East Side rent range?

August 13, 2005 12:42 PM

What should one expect to pay for a decent 3-bedroom rental apartment on the Upper East Side?

While I've worked in New York for seven years, I haven't been on the Manhattan rental market for a long time, and initial inquiries are yielding some dramatically different figures -- some people are telling me that one can find something nice for $4,000 a month, or maybe even less, and other people are saying that the minimum point of entry would be $7,000, and to expect to pay quite a bit more.

Also, if anyone has an idea of the appropriate premium that should attach to the "good" school districts (PS 6, 290, and 183) versus falling outside of the zones, that would be exceptionally helpful.

posted by MattD to home & garden (4 comments total)

Do you need your apartment to have a doorman and/or an elevator? Because there are lots of nice brownstone walk-ups that would be less expensive than a doorman/elevator building.

Otherwise, a nice three-bedroom with a somewhat-recently-redone kitchen in one of the ubiquitous "white brick" buildings on the Upper East Side (all built circa 1955-1965) should run about $4500 a month--and up.

But they'll only be about 1300 square feet. *sigh*
posted by Asparagirl at 1:27 PM on August 13, 2005

And when you start looking, do keep in mind that many people (and brokers) list two bedrooms and a den/dining room as a "three bedroom apartment".

Also keep in mind, that the long-awaited 2nd Avenue subway project may get restarted in the next few years, making the buildings near the line's future stations temporarily noisy and construction-ful and long-term more expensive.

Personally, I recommend East Midtown. I lived at 56th and 1st/2nd as a little kid, and it's still a very nice area, quiet and safe, but a little less expensive than, say, 80th and Park. Can't speak to the quality of the schools, though. And how cool is the Roosevelt Island Tram? To a kid, that's kind of like having Disneyland in your backyard.
posted by Asparagirl at 1:33 PM on August 13, 2005

Coincidentally, from today's Times.
posted by realcountrymusic at 8:58 PM on August 13, 2005

I just visited New York for the first time, stayed mostly in West midtown, and I am jealous of all of you. It was better than TeeVee.
posted by mecran01 at 9:21 PM on August 13, 2005