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Harlem rent prices soar to new records: Report

Neil Patrick Harris isn't the only one moving to Harlem. Home prices in the neighborhood reached record levels in 2013.
Neil Patrick Harris isn’t the only one moving to Harlem. Home prices in the neighborhood reached record levels in 2013.

Harlem led the way when it comes to rising Manhattan rents over the last year, a real estate report released Thursday found.

New York real estate group MNS said average rents in the borough went up 1.9% from $3,762 in January 2013 to $3,833 last month. Harlem saw a 9.4% average rent price increase during that same period from $2,191 last year to $2,397 in January.

Andrew Barrocas, the CEO of MNS, said the surge isn’t surprising because the neighborhood has blossomed into the city’s new hot spot and draws in plenty of working class people.

“Certain pockets of Harlem developed quite a bit. An area like Frederick Douglass Boulevard from 116th Street 125th Street is now restaurant row,” he said.

Barrocas predicts the rents will keep increasing as more trendy businesses set up shop and new units become available.

“The writing is on the wall for what’s coming up there,” he said.