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October Rental Market Prices, Vacancies Stable
New York, NY (November 10, 2009) –
Citi Habitats, one of Manhattan’s leading residentialbrokerages, released its monthly rental market analysis for October 2009, reporting only minorchanges in average rental rates across all categories of apartment sizes as compared toSeptember 2009. Studio apartment rates changed to $1,731, representing a decrease of 1%from September 2009; a one bedroom, $2,384 representing a decrease of 1% from September2009; a two bedroom, $3,302 representing a 1% decrease from September 2009; and threebedroom, $4,494 representing a decrease of 1% from September 2009.A comparative analysis of October 2009 rental rates to October 2008 indicates that rental ratesfor studios decreased in 2009 by 9% ($1,901), one bedroom rates decreased in 2009 by 7%($2,563), two bedroom rates decreased in 2009 by 8% ($3,605) and three bedroom ratesdecreased in 2009 by 6% ($4,774).The firm also reported an increase in the overall vacancy rate as compared to September 2009results, increasing from 1.83% to 1.86%. This is the sixth consecutive month that the vacancyrate has been reported at less than 2.0% indicating a tight market in terms of inventory levels.A comparative analysis of October 2009 vacancy rates to October 2008 indicates that vacancyrates increased in 2009 by 0.15 (1.71%).Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats noted “historically, as we head into the off-peak wintermonths, the market adjusts and we expect to see a decrease in rental prices as well as anincremental increase in the vacancy rate. However, the minor adjustments of this period ofaround 1% seem to indicate that the market may have found its footing, and that we may notsee drastic fluctuations in price or vacancy rates. Additionally, transactional volume has been atrecord levels throughout 2009, indicating vitality and demand.”The firm also reported today an increase in the amount of overall rental transactions for themonth of October 2009 as compared to that same period for 2008, continuing a trend ofincreasing numbers of rental transactions month over month for the first nine months of 2009.Overall transactional volume for Citi Habitats for October 2009 was more than 1,000transactions, representing an increase of more than 30% in the total number of transactionsfrom the October 2008 total of more than 700 transactions. All statistics cited in this report werecompiled using solely Citi Habitats closed transactions during the stated period of the report.
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