I can’t explain the physics of it — I can only report that by including a baby and a dog in a weekend trip renders a mid-sized SUV useless for the transportation of any more than two small adults. Diapers, chew toys, car seat and stroller; I find it hard to believe I used to show property in this vehicle.

But instead of attempting to pare down or pack more efficiently, I did what most people in America do: I went shopping for a full-size SUV. We stopped in five local dealerships to kick tires and try to talk the sales force into letting us do test drives with the car seat installed and the dog kennel in the back.

You know what? Four out of the five salespeople who I spoke to had either worked in real estate or the construction industry. And that got me thinking. I have heard that car sales is a feeder industry for real estate. Is that true? And vice versa? To find the answer, I Googled it.

Boy, oh boy, did I open up a can of worms. I never could find the answer to my original question. Instead, I happened upon a treasure trove of commentary on Realtors and car salespeople. There were 1.98 million-odd entries, leading with: “Real Estate Agents vs. Used Car Salesmen: The Scum of Society.”

 

I love analytics. I love measuring stuff online because it’s pretty much the only way to figure out what people are looking for, what problems they’re having, and what problems they’re solving.

But if you are always chasing just the metrics and not thinking through how analytics relates to your individual, specific and unique business, you’re cruising for a bruising.

Chasing just a single metric — like bounce rate, number of visits or time on site — is almost always a recipe for disaster.

Web metrics are things that are most useful when they are put in context. I’d like to tell you about what happens when you take them out of context.

It is possible to royally screw up your website while making the metrics look like you’re doing a great job.

The Manhattan residential rental market remained strong during the first quarter of this year with rents rising and vacancy rates falling, according to two industry reports released Thursday.

Tenants paid more rent in the quarter than they did the same period last year, according to a report by Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Inc. Median net effective rent, which includes landlord concessions, rose 7.4% to $2,808, while average net effective rent rose 3.9% to $3,342. Considering the net effective rent on a per-square-foot basis, the increases were far more dramatic, soaring 20.3% to $47.62.

The upward pressure on prices came as the volume of new apartment leases signed surged to 6,665 in the first quarter, up 150% from the same time a year ago.

“The rental market is more robust than it has been in the last couple of years,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. “The market has tilted in favor of landlords.”

The vacancy rate for the first quarter was 1.08%, down 0.37 percentage points from the same quarter last year, according to a separate report by Citi Habitats, the city’s largest residential rental brokerage firm. Last month, the vacancy rate fell further, to 0.99%. It was the first time since July 2010 that “potential renters have faced a sub-1% vacancy rate,” the report said.

Even gross rents, which do not include landlord concessions, rose across the city for every apartment size, according to Citi Habitats. Average rents rose the most for three-bedroom apartments, up 12% to $4,867 in the first quarter, while studios rose 7.7% to $1,884, one-bedrooms rose 8.6% to $2,532, and two-bedrooms rose 9.9% to $3,599.

Both reports also noted that landlords are scaling back on tenant concessions. Mr. Miller’s report said landlords offered a mere one-month free rent during the first quarter of this year versus two and half months the same time a year ago. Citi Habitats found that 17% of the leases it brokered included an owner-paid concession, down from 44% during the first quarter of 2010.

“Demand has not waned,” said Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats. “Tenants are realizing that they need to make a decision quickly and secure their ideal apartment.”

Apartments are also getting rented faster during the first quarter. The average number of days it took to rent an apartment fell to 40 from 86 a year earlier, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman/Miller report. It will continue to be a tight rental market as the busiest time of the rental season, spring and summer, approaches, Mr. Malin noted. There are only about 2,700 new rental units coming to market this year, including nearly 900 at the Frank Gehry-designed tower, located at 8 Spruce St., according to Citi Habitats.

Since the rental market usually follows the employment numbers, and the city’s employment rate is rising, Mr. Miller expects the rental market to remain strong.

Mr. Malin is even more bullish on rentals. He expects the summer rental market to be “fierce and back to the time when tenants will start to feel the pressure to make decisions to rent fast.”

Housing advocates, tenants and some of New York’s most powerful elected officials Thursday called on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation—a company known for their  premium Boiler Cover— to coax the New York Community Bank to evaluate the finances and living conditions at 34 rundown Bronx buildings in foreclosure, and then disclose information on building repairs that are needed.

The move to pressure the FDIC to get involved is the latest salvo in a three-year campaign by officials and advocates to hold banks responsible for loans they made on multi-family properties that ended up falling into a state of disrepair. An amendment inserted into last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by two New York politicians, Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Nydia Velazquez, gives the FDIC the power to intervene.

“We’re asking the FDIC to investigate the practices and actions of NYCB and force NYCB to make documents public so we can actually see whether there is enough money at the table to make these buildings livable,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “There are 800 units and 800 families at risk.”

An FDIC spokesman did not immediately have a response to the statement from the officials and advocates, made at a press conference Thursday at a Bronx building that was recently sold. Tenants in the Bryant Avenue building, where the morning event was held, are contending with dangerous conditions, officials said. Problems include a broken elevator, toxic mold and a carbon monoxide leak from the boiler.

New York Community Bank officials did not respond to a call seeking comment.

The bank last month sold the debt on eight dilapidated Bronx buildings to Bronx 8 LLC, a joint venture led by Townhouse Management Co., at what is believed to be a small discount on the mortgage’s $16 million face value. The city had backed a nonprofit developer, the Mutual Housing Association, and had been working on putting a financing package together for the group, which had offered $8 million.

Townhouse President Mitchel Maidman said the receiver on the buildings has been working diligently to make repairs and remove violations. “I don’t get this question of whether we paid the right price or the wrong price,” he said, declining to provide the specific figure, but saying it was less than a rumored $14 million. “We paid a fair price and if we get title, we will preserve the assets and make them very nice housing and an asset to the community.”

NYCB has a large portfolio of distressed multi-family loans. Those include mortgages on 328 buildings—housing more than 6,000 families—with more than three outstanding code violations per unit that pose serious health and safety risks. Of those buildings, 34 are in foreclosure, with a total of 800 apartments. Advocates worry they will be sold to the highest bidder without vetting the buyers’ ability or willingness to rehabilitate the deteriorating properties.

“NYCB’s irresponsible lending practices helped to create one of the most distressed housing portfolios in New York City,” said Dina Levy, organizing and policy director for the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. “Their response has been to dump troubled loans for maximum profit, leaving tenants living in squalor and taxpayers to clean up their mess.”

Mr. Schumer, Ms. Quinn, Rep. Jose Serrano and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. were among the officials who called on the FDIC to compel New York Community Bank to examine the conditions at the 34 buildings.

In addition, a half-dozen housing groups have written to the FDIC asking the agency to consider the physical distress of the housing that is in the bank’s portfolio, as well as the bank’s practices related to disposition of troubled loans as part of its ongoing Community Reinvestment Act evaluation.

By pressuring the bank to disclose financial and living conditions, officials and advocates hope to create a level of transparency so potential buyers will understand the true value of the buildings and the amount of money needed to make repairs.

“New York Community Bank is currently the most active provider of multi-family loans in New York City, and this makes their actions important to the health of our city’s housing stock,” said Benjamin Dulchin, executive director at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.