Where can I find NYC property value statistics for 2009-2010
January 21, 2010 10:18 AM   Subscribe

I am looking to find out overall statistics for property rentals in NY for 2009-2010. I am trying to write a letter to prevent a rent hike and I want to fill it with some statistics to help better illustrate my point. Thanks in advance.
posted by lukeomalley to Law & Government (5 answers total)
 
Do you mean New York State as a whole? I'm not sure that a landlord in Watertown will care about the statistics from Manhattan, or vice versa. A more specific location would help. Also, are you interested in residential or commercial rentals?
posted by Jemstar at 10:24 AM on January 21, 2010


Assuming you are in NYC...

there are statistics out there - but I would warn against using them to make your argument. For the most part they are assembled by realtors and management companies all of whom have a vested interest in maintaining current pricing. search Curbed for them if you really want to find that stuff.

Anecdotally I'd tell you that data is garbage. It says apartments in my nabe are down only 10% or less y/y. My building which is pretty average has a landlord who doesn't know how to delete old listings on his website. When it came time for me to renegotiate my lease I ran through all of that data and realized he was signing new rents down 20% or more after the apartments were vacant for 2-3 months. That is quite different from what the reports said. I wrote a letter asking for a number that implied a similar loss of revenue for him but took into account my moving costs and ended up with something like down 25% after a bit of back and forth. He had asked for flat originally.

If you can't find the kind of data I did the other option is to use StreetEasy to create a list of true comps and use that in your argument. Write a respectful letter asking for a rent cut that makes it clear you are happy to move. I think its important that you actually be willing to move and get that across in the letter. Honestly they know what the comps are so you don't need to shove the mass of data at them - just say "comps seem to be X". If they still say no well then great you already did part of the work for finding a new place.
posted by JPD at 10:48 AM on January 21, 2010


Try the Manhattan Year End Rental Market Report from The Real Estate Group. They also have a month-by-month report and reports for Brooklyn.
posted by melissasaurus at 11:44 AM on January 21, 2010


Melissasaurus' link is about as good as you're going to get; it's important to remember, though, that the data are published by an industry trade group in whose interest it is to portray real estate prices as always rising over time.

Accordingly, these data are not really reliable.

The notion of relying on real estate rental data to prove a point is, while tempting, hard to do in practice because of the problems with the data.
posted by dfriedman at 11:58 AM on January 21, 2010


I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish with this letter. If you don't want your rent to be raised, the most effective thing you can do is threaten to move. Speaking as a landlord.

The rent negotiation between landlord and tenant is not one of sober, rational arguments about the state of the market. It's about making offers and counteroffers. Thus:

"I understand you are planning to raise the rent we pay in your lease renewal offer. If you do, we will not be taking up your offer. We are willing to pay $X, which is $Y less than our current rent $Z, because we see many nice apartments in convenient locations at that level."
posted by dhartung at 10:43 PM on January 21, 2010


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