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If your monthly rent already feels outrageous, you may want to sit down for this one: the average Manhattan apartment is now renting for $6,655 a month.
That eye-watering figure is an all-time high and represents a 10-percent jump from the same time last year. In other words, Manhattan’s average rent is now considerably closer to $7,000 than $6,000, according to new July rental data from Corcoran, which was first covered by The New York Post.
Studios now average $4,088 per month, up 8-percent year over year, while one-bedrooms average $5,486, a 7-percent increase. Need a little more space? Two-bedrooms have shot up 13-percent to an average of $8,054, while three-bedrooms are going for a frankly dizzying $12,228 per month, up 12-percent from last year. Studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms all reached record highs.
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Median rents, which can offer a better picture of what a typical renter encounters because they’re less affected by ultra-expensive listings, are also at or near historic highs. Separate July data from real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller put Manhattan’s median rent at $5,000, up 6.4-percent from a year earlier. Corcoran’s latest figures put the median at $5,295.
So exactly what is going on? The simplest answer is that New York still doesn’t have nearly enough apartments available. The city’s most recent official housing survey put the rental vacancy rate at just 1.49-percent, the lowest since 1968. Higher mortgage rates are also keeping would-be homebuyers in the rental market longer, adding competition for a limited number of apartments.
There’s debate over how much recent housing policies are contributing. Real estate industry figures have argued that the FARE Act, which generally requires landlords to pay brokers they hire rather than passing those fees along to tenants, has pushed some owners to raise rents or withhold apartments. Some brokers also contend that the city’s upcoming freeze on rents for stabilized apartments could lead owners with both regulated and market-rate units to seek higher rents from the latter. Tenant advocates and lawmakers have disputed industry claims about the effects of those policies.
And renters aren’t finding much relief by crossing the East River: Brooklyn rents are setting records, too, with separate July data putting the borough’s median at $4,500, up 17-percent year over year.
Summer is traditionally New York’s most competitive rental season, with prices often leveling off in the fall. But Miller told The City he isn’t convinced renters will get that seasonal reprieve this year, predicting that economic pressures could keep rents climbing. For anyone apartment hunting right now, apparently even “wait until fall” isn’t much of a strategy anymore.