Rents in Manhattan and Queens went down again in October

Apartment hunting in New York City has never been easy. However, over the past year, NYC renters had to deal with record-high prices, low inventory, and bidding wars. In August, the rental market started to change. NYC rents began to fall slightly from the previous month, and the number of available rental units kept growing. 

The median Manhattan rent dropped 0.3 percent between September and October, according to the report from Miller Samuel Inc. Manhattan rents have been moderately decreasing for the past three months. Last month, the median rental price slipped from $4,022 to $4,009. The luxury rental market, on the other hand, has been going strong and setting new records. The median rental prices for luxury units, which make up the top 10 percent of Manhattan apartments, rose to $13,000 a month. 

“Luxury is through the roof relative to the balance of the market,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Inc., told Bloomberg. “That trend is continuing even as the overall market peaks.”

The NYC rental market is returning back to normalcy. Bidding wars are becoming less common, and the vacancy rate is slowly increasing. The market share of new contacts that have been signed after bidding wars went down to 14.2 percent. Usually, this number stays at about 20 percent. Unfortunately, the listing inventory continues to remain low. There were 6,315 apartments available in Manhattan in October, down from 6,494 a month before. 

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, rents have gone up a little bit. The median rental price increased by 0.1 percent, from $3,495 in September to $3,497 in October. There were 1,464 new leases signed in Brooklyn last month, up 42.9 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The market share of landlord concessions dropped to 15.5 percent. Last year, leases with landlord concessions made up 34.1 percent of all newly signed rental agreements. 

Renters in Queens also have a chance to enjoy a small price reduction. The median rental price for an apartment in this borough fell 3.3 percent from the previous month to $3,094. The number of newly signed contracts went down 2.8 percent from last year but remained 20.8 percent above the five-year average. The competition in the Queens rental market remains strong, with every seventh tenant offering to pay above the asking rent. 

Resources:

“Elliman Report: Manhattan, Brooklyn & Queens Rentals 10-2022,” (Miller Samuel Inc., 2022)

“Manhattan Luxury Rents Go ‘Through the Roof,’ Other Prices Fall,” by Jennifer Epstein (Bloomberg, 2022)