Real estate report: bad news, unless you get two roommates

With everyone feeling good about winter’s end (even in the driving rain it was kind of warm last night), we thought it would be useful to add a pinch of doom right before everyone’s weekend. Why? Consider it a public service, a reminder that every good time is fleeting and the rest of life is a slog of one piece of bad news after another. Today’s bad news? Rents continue going up in Brooklyn, and fast, while your living space options continue to shrink.

A report today from Douglas Elliman Real Estate lays out the bad news: in March, the median rents all went up for studios, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments. The median price for a 2-bedroom stands at $3,201 per month. The only good news? If you don’t mind having to share a bathroom with two people instead of one, the median price for a 3-bedroom dropped to $3,500 per month. Guess people are deciding they really want their space?

Why is this happening? Outside of the whims of a cruel and capricious god, it’s the usual problem of supply and demand. People who needed somewhere to live went looking for cheaper, smaller apartments. But there were fewer of those on the market because people who already have somewhere to live are terrified of testing the market and are renewing their leases in larger numbers than last year. Combine those two and voila: a dog-eat-dog rental market that benefits no one. Except for people renting apartments we guess. What to do? Well, if you can somehow take out a mortgage to buy Jay-Z’s share of the Nets, you can probably justify sleeping at Barclays.

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