Two-Bedroom Rentals Becoming Hot Commodity in Bed-Stuy

A September report released this week by real estate company MNS showed that Bed-Stuy renters want two bedroom apartments, and they want them now!

In fact, the market demand for two-bedroom rentals is so great, it's driving the prices for these properties up, while studios and one-bedroom apartments continue on a steady rental price decline.

MNS’s Brooklyn Rental Market Report gives an overview of the current state of the residential rental market each month. The peak rental months in a year tend to be between July and October with spikes during these times.

The rental price of a two-bedroom in Bed-Stuy averaged at $1,911 in September, indicating a continued steady increase from $1,630 in May, the lowest rent pricing month of 2011.

“These spaces are attractive to families,” said Senior Associate Broker with the Corcoran Group and Bed-Stuy Patch Real Estate Columnist Mtkalla Keaton. “But you also see a lot of NYU and Pratt students who choose to share a two-bedroom apartment.”

Keaton also pointed out that in many brownstone communities in New York, landlords choose to make more money by advertising one-and-a-half bedroom spaces as two bedrooms.

“It is the same 800-square foot you would get in a one-bedroom, but people are willing to pay two-bedroom prices for that extra half room,” he said as a possible explanation for the two bedroom increase.

Michael Corley, executive vice president of Corley Realty Group, however, says that the numbers in the report do not reflect what he sees on the ground.

“Bedford-Stuyvesant has a largely unstructured rental market,” he said explaining that it is not easy to come up with set numbers to describe the neighborhood’s market.

This may have in large part to do with realtors insistance on marketing properties east of Classon, which is Bed-Stuy, as properties in Clinton Hill.

As an example, he said a two-bedroom west of Nostrand Avenue, which is the most highly migrated area, could run for $1,600, while one block east, a similar apartment would run for $1,400.

Though the rental prices for two bedrooms in the neighborhood continue to rise according to the report, the $1,911 average price is much lower than the overall mean rental price in Brooklyn, at $2,835. Bed-Stuy's sister neighborhood, Crown Heights, offers a slightly lower September average rental price at $1,897.

The rental price for a studio in Bed-Stuy fell to $1,134 in September as compared to August’s $1,167. There has been a steady rent decline since the March 2011 peak of $1,436. A similar trend can be seen with the neighborhood’s one-bedroom apartments which dipped under $1,400 for the first time in 2011 at $1,362 in September. This is an almost four percent decrease from $1,429 in August.

Crown Heights also has higher studio rental prices at $1,250 for September. Their one-bedroom rental prices are also higher at $1,526.

Keaton points out that the lack of movement in studios and one bedrooms could be a seasonal thing. Keaton said that Bed-Stuy, as seen in the last five years, continues to attract people excited to move from more expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan.

MNS based the report on data from available listings aggregated from the MNS proprietary data base and rental rates provided by landlords. Ultra-luxury properties were comitted to gain a true sense of the market.

Click here to view the full report.