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To the average person when you state Upper East Side, they picture Jackie O, Millionaires and 5th Avenue and 20 million dollar apartments, yet:
1. Odly, one could one find one token NYCHA building on Madison Avenue below 96th Street.
2. Odly, there are often some cheap upper east side apartments in the 70s and 80s near York or 1st avenue.
So, what are the "bargain" apartments in the Upper East side like?
Thanks
UES is a fairly large area. The most expensive areas are closest to CP and those that are quite a ways east of the 6 line are more economically priced as they're less desirable in terms of locale. This could change if the 2nd Ave subway gets up and running. I don't know the area that well but don't think the reason certain UES apartments cost less than expected is that they're crummy or run down. I'd imagine it's b/c of location and relatively higher inventory than some of the hotter downtown areas.
To the average person when you state Upper East Side, they picture Jackie O, Millionaires and 5th Avenue and 20 million dollar apartments, yet:
1. Odly, one could one find one token NYCHA building on Madison Avenue below 96th Street.
2. Odly, there are often some cheap upper east side apartments in the 70s and 80s near York or 1st avenue.
So, what are the "bargain" apartments in the Upper East side like?
Thanks
You just answered your own question.
There is the NYCHA project housing as stated plus some scattered "supportive" housing (mostly in the East 80's and 70's). You also have at least one NYCHA senior housing on East 71st and First.
The rest are rent controlled and stabilized units but if below market rent are likely to be inhabited by long term tenants who moved in > 15 years or longer ago.
A bulk of those RS units west of Lexington were in small brownstones/townhouses that were broken up into apartments years ago. Now that brownstone living has returned with a vengeance those buildings were sold and new owners began reclaiming the entire place for "family use" as per RS laws.
The other amount of RS apartments on the UES are in the larger apartment buildings including those along Park, Lexington and Madison Avenue. Again your chances of nabbing a below market unit are nil for reasons we have already explored. Rent Control : Curbed NY
What "cheap" units on the UES left were found late as the 1980's and part of the 1990's in Yorkville/ east of and or on Third Avenue. Second Avenue in the 1980's in particular was not a very desirable place to the point landlords were renting to trannie hookers just to get rent.
Also since the only subway serving the UES is the Lexington Avenue IRT the further east you went towards the river it became more difficult to attract tenants, so rents were lower. That has changed in recent years and especially with the SAS coming on line soon.
Years ago when units were vacated in these "cheap" parts of the UES/Yorkville landlords just took the vacancy increase and rented again under RS. Now places are gut renovating any below market apartment that becomes vacant in order to get the rent up and unit hopefully out of RS.
Lots of 5 and 6 story tenement apartment buildings between First and Second, fewer but still a good amount between Second and Third.
What they have in common is they are all walk-up apartments, mostly railroad apartments on either side of a staircase.
I think that is pretty much the last of the under $2,500 bunch of apartments in Manhattan South of 96th St. It is a long uphill trudge from First Avenue to the subway stations on Lexington Ave.
Some are stabilized some have been taken out of stabilization, many illegally. Lower rents seem to be in the 90's, rather than the 80's or 70's. (Just my opinion.)
Doesn't literally every neighborhood in Manhattan have at least one NYCHA development?
Of the traditional neighborhoods, probably; not to sure about the newly created places like "NoMad" (North Madison) or in fact the entire area from Korea-Town down to 14th Street in Mid-town. On the west and east sides are another matter.
Doesn't literally every neighborhood in Manhattan have at least one NYCHA development?
Not Soho or Noho or what is left of Little Italy - so-called Lolita.
No social service housing either. And they just closed one of the last shelter-type places on Lafayette.
Lots of 5 and 6 story tenement apartment buildings between First and Second, fewer but still a good amount between Second and Third.
What they have in common is they are all walk-up apartments, mostly railroad apartments on either side of a staircase.
I think that is pretty much the last of the under $2,500 bunch of apartments in Manhattan South of 96th St. It is a long uphill trudge from First Avenue to the subway stations on Lexington Ave.
Some are stabilized some have been taken out of stabilization, many illegally. Lower rents seem to be in the 90's, rather than the 80's or 70's. (Just my opinion.)
Walking down Third Avenue from 88th towards 72nd the other night friends and I were chatting/making predictions. We all felt certain that most of the remaining walk-up buildings along Third in that area and probably Second will be gone in a generation or two, maybe a bit more. If NYC real estate market remains strong owners of the land can only resist temptation to sell for so long. Mentioned previously the block of buildings where Citarella is located is up for sale: Citarella NYC | 1313 Third Avenue NYC | Marcus Millichap
Again only thing keeping those old walk-ups and tenements "up" are that they usually have plenty of rent controlled and or stabilized tenants. As those persons die off or otherwise vacate units the apartments will be either warehoused or renovated to at least get them out of rent control. Market rate tenants are easier to give the push.
There are a noticeable amount of housing projects on 2nd/3rd ave when you get into the high 90s/low 100s, but there are enough surrounding areas that make it desirable. If you can save a few hundred/thousand in rent just by having a little greater of a walk to Central Park, it's worth it. The area is relatively safe.
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