More U-Haul Traffic Entering than Leaving the Densely Populated Borough
MANHATTAN, N.Y. — For every parking garage, aging warehouse or string of small buildings with a Manhattan address, there are a dozen developers lined up with large checks and visions of high-rise apartment developments in its place.
“You can’t really go around the corner without seeing a crane,” said Jeff Sonberg, president of U-Haul Company of Manhattan/Bronx. “It’s a building boom. There’s a huge project around the 34th Street-Hudson Yards subway stop. Developers obviously aren’t going to build these things unless they know they can sell them, too.”
U-Haul has winning tips to make moving in Manhattan easier
Manhattan, which keeps finding new space for residents willing to pay a premium price, graces the U-Haul Top 10 U.S. Growth Cities for 2015 at No. 8. Growth rankings are determined by the net gain of incoming one-way U-Haul truck rentals versus outgoing rentals for the past calendar year.
$100 does not go as far in Manhattan as the national average. (source: taxfoundation.org)
U-Haul locations in Manhattan saw 51.6 percent of truck rental customers coming into the city as opposed leaving. Manhattan welcomed 12 percent more U-Haul arrivals year-over-year, while its departures were up 3 percent over the same period. The overall bump in U-Haul traffic made the borough a busy backdrop for do-it-yourself movers.
Manhattan remains the tourist magnet it has always been, with Times Square, Broadway and the view atop One World Trade Center offering an agenda that’s tough to beat. For those who want to live in the heart of the action, Sonberg said there are more corners of the city that newcomers are willing to explore – and more sacrifices they are willing to make.
“The mayor speaks on how secure the city is and invites people in, and they come,” Sonberg said. “People are going off the beaten path to see different sections of the city. Developers are coming up with micro-apartments now – I can’t see them being more than a couple of hundred square feet. People do what they have to do when starting a business or wanting to live in the city and have a Manhattan address.”
While U-Haul migration trends don’t correlate directly to population or economic growth, the growth cities data is a strong gauge of how well cities are attracting and keeping residents. Continue following the U-Haul Top 10 U.S. Growth Cities countdown at myuhaulstory.com and via Twitter @uhaul.
More on Manhattan
- Affordability is the No. 1 obstacle when it comes to living in Manhattan. A CNN Money report in June 2015 listed the
median monthly rent for a Manhattan apartment at $3,380 and noted occupancy was at 98.35 percent. A New York Times story in May 2015 put the median sales price of a Manhattan apartment at $900,700 for the first quarter of last year. - U-Haul serves Manhattan with one store, U-Haul Moving & Storage of Chelsea, and five neighborhood dealers. There are 16 U-Haul-owned stores across the city’s five
boroughs. - Brooklyn ranked No. 6 among the U-Haul Top 10 Destination Cities of 2014. Destination cities factor in the number of one-way U-Haul truck arrivals, while growth cities account for arrivals and departures.
Quotable
- “I was a U-Haul dealer for seven years with three locations in the city. I’ve seen the amount of development going on the last five years. Any open lots, any warehouses, have been taken up. Parking garages are gutted. Even 2-3 storage facilities were bought out and turned into residential areas. Whatever square footage, no matter the previous use, they’ll take it. The foundation has to be strong enough to put up 30-40 stories. If it’s not, they’ll knock it down, build a foundation and put up apartments in a year with retail on the ground floor.” — Will Rodriguez, U-Haul area field manager in Manhattan
Click here for more help with your move to Manhattan or view the full infographic here.
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