The impending L train shutdown will make life a little bit harder for a few months for some Brooklyn straphangers, but there is one upside to the upcoming work: reduced rents.
Rents in North Brooklyn have continued to drop ahead of the public transit project, according to real estate site StreetEasy, which on Thursday released a new report on the February real estate market in New York City.
Neighborhoods served by the L train, including Williamsburg and Greenpoint, saw rents drop for the seventh consecutive month, according to the report. With an estimated rent of $3,027 in February, rents in that area were .6 percent lower than last year — and they could drop even more.
“The L train shutdown is a tidal wave that’s been off on the horizon,” said Grant Long, a senior economist with StreetEasy, in a statement. “Now that we’re in the period where new leases will overlap with the shutdown in April 2019, we’re seeing landlords get more liberal with discounts to make sure they attract tenants — and maybe even incentivize them to stay for longer than a year.”
North Brooklyn also surpassed Northwest Brooklyn, which covers from Red Hook to Clinton Hill, in terms of the area within the borough with the largest share of discounted rentals. In February, 25 percent of rentals in North Brooklyn were discounted, compared to 21 percent in Northwest Brooklyn.
Outside of those areas, things are still looking pretty good for renters throughout the city, according to StreetEasy.
In Queens, the site’s rent index has been decreasing as well, with rents dropping an average of $41 per month. In other areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan, the rent index is remaining mostly flat, meaning there’s not a huge spike in rents.
Across those three boroughs, landlords offered discounts on one in five rental units, according to the February report. Still, with North Brooklyn seeing the most markdowns, it may be a neighborhood to consider if you can get around without the L.
“Renters should consider the reality of limited transportation to these areas,” Long said about those North Brooklyn neighborhoods, “but there are bargains to be had if that’s a trade-off they’re willing to make.”
