BROOKLYN — Rents are surging in Bed-Stuy and Bushwick — even as apartment costs in the rest of Brooklyn have held steady or even dropped over the past year, according to a new report.
Bushwick's rents jumped 8.2 percent to $2,005 from December 2012 to December 2013, while Bed-Stuy's rose by 6.5 percent to $1,856 over the same period, MNS found in a Brooklyn Market Report released Thursday.
That same period saw rents drop by more than 4 percent in Fort Greene, and level off in Park Slope, Clinton Hill and Crown Heights, according to the report.
MNS CEO Andrew Barrocas credits the shift to Bushwick and Bed-Stuy's cool factor.
"I was in Seattle, and everybody wants to know what's going on in Bushwick," Barrocas said. "It has an arts scene that is well positioned to be the top arts center of New York City."
As for Bed-Stuy, Barrocas said an influx of higher-income renters have recently followed the new bars, restaurants and retail into the neighborhood.
"From a retail standpoint, Restoration Plaza and what they did in terms of cleaning up all of Fulton has helped really change that area — you see a lot of the similarities that you see in Bushwick and even Williamsburg six or seven years ago," Barrocas said. "If you go down Bedford [Avenue] for instance, you’re starting to see a lot more shops open up, bars, restaurants."
Even with the recent rent increases, both Bushwick and Bed-Stuy are still more affordable than Brooklyn's hottest neighborhoods.
A studio in Bushwick rented for an average of $1,865 in December, as opposed to $2,648 in Williamsburg, the MNS report found. In Bed-Stuy, two-bedroom apartments rented for an average of $2,116, while in Park Slope they commanded $3,268.
Still, rising rents in Bed-Stuy and Bushwick mean bargain seekers will have to head elsewhere Brooklyn, to neighborhoods like Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, where average rents dropped by nearly 9 percent during 2013.
"It’s not only people that are moving from Manhattan that might be getting priced out — it’s a primary market," Barrocas said of Brooklyn. "People are moving across the country to move to Brooklyn now."
