A new report from Apartment List shows that while many large cities are getting cheaper, rents are actually rising in surrounding suburban communities.
This is especially true in New York City, where rents are down 12.6% while rents in nearby suburban areas are, on average, down 2.2%. Also, of the 7 local suburbs for which Apartment List has data, every single one of them is experiencing higher rent growth than New York. Leading among these suburbs is Newark, which is posting rent growth of +2%.
New York is not alone: Rents are down in 41 of the 100 largest cities in the US, according to the Apartment List National Rent Report.
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But New York is also struggling with a high vacancy rate—it had nearly 16,000 empty rental apartments as of September, or 5.75% of the borough's total apartment inventory, according to a report from brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Jonathan Miller. That's the highest vacancy rate in at least 14 years,
The report also noted that median rent is down 11% in Manhattan on an annual basis
The situation has become ripe for apartment hunters to negotiate with landlords. According to analysis by listings website StreetEasy, a record 44.7% of apartments in Manhattan had discounted asking rent during the third quarter of 2020, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
