This summer is one of the toughest for NYC renters

New York City tenants are having a hard time this summer as rents continue to set new records and the inventory remains low. The pandemic-era deals have expired, and as leases came up for renewal, many New Yorkers had to look for new apartments. 

More than one-third of all units currently available for rent in New York City come from tenants priced out of apartments they leased in 2020 and 2021, according to the Q2 StreetEasy report. Early in the pandemic, landlords had to offer significant discounts and free months of rent to attract tenants and avoid empty units. This year, they are making up for lost revenue. 

StreetEasy found that, on average, apartments that were listed in the first two years of the pandemic are asking 20 percent more after being relisted in the second quarter of this year. This is one of the biggest jumps in yearly rent increases. Now, tenants have to pay a lot more to continue renting their current homes. For comparison, rentals that were listed in 2018 or 2019 and relisted in Q2 of 2022 showed an increase of only 4.5 percent per year. 

“Renters are being squeezed to their limit by steep increases in rent but they still need places to live,” StreetEasy economist Kenny Lee told Bloomberg. “Some people priced out of their preferred neighborhoods may be moving to less-expensive areas where, in turn, they’re contributing to rising rates.”

In Manhattan, the number of apartments listed for rent jumped 33 percent in just one quarter. According to StreetEasy, about 44 percent of those new listings became available because the former tenants were not able to renew their leases due to the significant price increases. The demand from New Yorkers, who are searching for new rentals, went up, and so did the prices. By the end of the second quarter, the median rent in Manhattan reached $4,100 a month, a new all-time high.

Those, who were priced out of their homes in Manhattan, are now looking for more affordable rentals in the outer boroughs. The number of apartments available in Queens dropped 9 percent from Q1 2022. Low inventory pushed prices to go up. The median asking rent in this borough reached $2,600 a month, up 13 percent from the end of the previous quarter. 

Meanwhile, the rental inventory in Brooklyn has remained more stable compared to Queens. The number of available rentals increased 5 percent from the last quarter. However, Brooklyn’s listing inventory is still down 48 percent from what we saw last year. The median asking rent climbed to $3,200 a month. The report suggests that rents across the city will continue to rise at least through the end of this summer.

Resources:

“As Pandemic-Era Leases Expire, NYC Renters Face Toughest Market in Decade,” by Kenny Lee (StreetEasy, 2022)

“NYC Renters ‘Squeezed to Their Limit’ With Record-High Costs,” by Jennifer Epstein (Bloomberg, 2022)

“New York Renters Are Now Paying the Price for the ‘Covid Discount’,” by Ronda Kaysen (The New York Times, 2022)