Lucy Cohen Blatter

This has been one crazy decade for real estate -- there's been a "boom," a "bust," and several plateaus too.

Those with a keen eye may have noticed that at the right of our homepage, we've added a new reader survey. 

This time we've turned our attention to rent, asking our BrickUnderground readers to tell us how much your rent went up the last time you renewed your lease. 

Give us your response and see the kinds of rent increases your fellow BrickUnderground-ers had in the last year or two. 

This $3,200 a month three-bedroom apartment is located inside a three-family brownstone at 163 W. 129th Street in Central Harlem.

Built from the ground up in 2002, the space has approximately 2,400 square feet, and a backyard, too. The kitchen, while spacious, has standard, non-luxury appliances. Rent includes heat and hot water. 

Many if not most NYC renters wind up paying a broker fee ranging from one month's rent to 15% of a year's rent when signing a lease on a new apartment. Find your next apartment through RentJolt, an online apartment marketplace that launched its beta version last weekend, and you'll pay 5.75% of a year's rent.

Over on StreetEasy.com, a first-time buyer asks whether it’s a good idea to set up a bi-weekly automatic debit from his checking account to make mortgage payments.

The general consensus is no, with some StreetEasy users advising against automatic debiting for mortgages and in general.