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Costs to Rent or Own in Lower Manhattan Are Matched by Lofty Local Earnings

A slew of recent reports documents what everyone who lives or works in Lower Manhattan already sensed in their bones: This is a mind-numbingly expensive place to call home.

In September, RENTCafé issued a new analysis of the most expensive neighborhoods for renters in the United States that finds northern Battery Park City (zip code 10282) is the priciest enclave in America, with an average rent of $6,211 per month. (That neighborhood held the same place on RENTCafé’s list last year, but 2019 is the first time local rents have broken the $6,000 threshold.)

Coming in at second place (and only slightly less expensive) is zip code 10013, which covers western Tribeca, along with part of Soho. This community held the same second-rank last year, but diverged from Battery Park City in the respect that rents here actually declined slightly from 2018, dropping 0.8 percent, to an average of $5,327 per month.

Two other areas of Downtown also make RENTCafé’s list of the 50 most expensive zip codes for renters in America: the Seaport and Civic Center neighborhoods (zip: 10038) ring in with $4,434 average monthly rent, while an apartment in southern Tribeca (10007) will set you back $3,712.

(To read the original RENTCafé analysis, please browse.)

A separate analysis from PropertyClub shows the buying an apartment in Lower Manhattan can also induce a serious case of sticker shock. A review of condominium sales data for the first half of 2019 indicates that southern Tribeca (10007) is the most expensive district in the nation, with a median sales price of $4.1 million (based on 121 transactions), while western Tribeca and Soho (10013) are close behind with a typical price of $3.6 million (based on 188 sales). Northern Battery Park City (10282) takes the ninth spot on the list, with a price of $2.1 million (based on eight closings). (To read the original PropertyClub analysis, please browse)

A third review, from Platinum Properties, indicates that these hefty sales prices are actually discounted from the levels of just a few years ago. In all of Battery Park City, the firm finds that the average sales price for the second quarter of 2019 was $1,551,785 (or $1,277 per square foot), a drop of 11.3 percent from the previous quarter. In the whole of the Financial District, the company concludes, the average sales price was $1.4 million (or $1,231 per square foot), an increase of 6.73 percent from the first three months of the year. (To read the Platinum Properties reports, please browse here and here.)

A fourth analysis, by StreetEasy, documents that New York is experiencing a luxury condominium glut, with more than one-fourth the 16,000-plus new condo units built in the City since the beginning of 2013 remaining unsold. The same analysis finds that, despite this surplus of supply, many more new units are still in the development pipeline, with more than 5,600 condo apartments listed for sale, but not yet finished construction.

One Lower Manhattan neighborhood is prominently represented in this imbalance: More than two-thirds of the thousand-plus condos apartments for sale on the Lower East Side remain unsold, as a result of more than 800 units coming online in a single building (the 72-floor One Manhattan Square) at the start of this year. Within this building, only about one-fifth of the apartments have sold thus far. The same neighborhood, Two Bridges, is slated to become home to several thousand additional new apartments in the next few years, as multiple controversial development projects move forward. (To read the StreetEasy report, please browse here)

Finally, an analysis by Bloomberg (based on individual income tax return data from 2016) suggests that residents of three Lower Manhattan neighborhoods may be able to afford lofty home prices with ease. This tabulation found that residents of western Tribeca (zip code 10007) have average annual incomes of $879,000 (fifth highest in the nation), while those in the eastern Financial District (10005) earn an average of $529,500 (ranking 34th in America), and people who make their homes in northern Battery Park City (10282) typically pull in $522,400 (36th highest in the United States).