It didn’t seem possible two years ago – but thanks to falling rents, outer-borough renters are finding it affordable to move into Manhattan.
Where once the definition of a bargain was a nice pad one subway stop into Brooklyn, now the real deals are suddenly springing up on the more convenient side of the East River.
Financial lawyer Katherine Richardson, 26, parted company with Brooklyn Heights last week after finding a no-fee apartment, double the size of her old one, in a doorman building on the Upper East Side for only $400 more.
In Brooklyn Heights, she paid $1,750 for a three-floor walkup at Quentin and State streets. Now she is unpacking in a 650-square-foot apartment at 89th Street and Third Avenue, with a brand-new kitchen fitted with a dishwasher. Her rent includes basic cable and membership in the building’s gym, which has a pool.
“The cable and gym alone would cost me well over $100 a month,” said Richardson, who can now walk to her office in Midtown.
“Moving to Manhattan was something I always wanted to do but I assumed I would have to wait a few more years before I could afford it. But my lease came up and when I found a no-fee apartment, twice the size of my Brooklyn one, it seemed to be a no-brainer to move to the city now.”
Richardson found her apartment through Ardor Realty, who say that the Upper East Side particularly is the place to find bargains.
“A lot of buildings on the Upper East Side have dropped their rents drastically,” broker Guy Millien told The Post. He added that high demand for parts of Brooklyn has made renting there as expensive.
“Anything that’s two or three stops from Manhattan is in high demand and that is leveling out the rental market,” said Millien.
Richard Dolan, 26, a Web master who runs his own company, Datapipe, and his girlfriend, financial analyst, Hama Makino, 26, look back in horror when they think of their old Williamsburg apartment now that they’ve found a better deal in the city.
They swapped their tiny two-bedroom at Bedford and North 7th, which cost $2,200 a month, for a huge two-bedroom in Stuyvesant Town, for no fee and in which utilities are covered in the $2,395 rent.
“When we moved to Williamsburg in May 2001, we looked in Manhattan too, but pretty much gave up on it,” said Dolan, who had lived in Jersey City before that.
Documentary-maker Tom Folsom, 28, found a place in Hell’s Kitchen to match the bargain he thought he had in Fort Greene.
Next month he’s moving from his $1,000 studio on Cumberland Street to a one-bedroom in Hell’s Kitchen for $150 more.
“If I was going to move from my place to another place in Brooklyn, it would now be as expensive,” said Folsom.
Folsom had lived with a relative on the Upper East Side until two years ago, and has wanted to move back to the city since.
“I figured it would probably be in about 20 years,” said Folsom, who nevertheless kept an eye on Craig’s List and in the Village Voice before finding his new apartment through a friend.
“When I started looking around I noticed it looked increasingly possible to be able to move back,” he said.