Manhattan Apartment Rents Hit Record High
The median rent in April in Manhattan was $4,250, a 3.7% increase from the previous month.
After a brief respite in March, Manhattan’s median apartment rent continued heading back to record territory in April.
The median rent in April in Manhattan was $4,250, a 3.7% increase from the previous month, as the number of new leases in the borough surged by nearly 15% to 5,482, according to the latest Elliman Report.
The Manhattan median set a new record for the month of April, according to Elliman, but it still has a way to go to reach last summer’s benchmark of $4,400, the all-time monthly record.
The report described the surge in new lease signings in Manhattan, which rose nearly 42% in a year-over-year comparison—the second-highest April tally on record—as “ferocious.”
“The lease signings expansion was enabled because of the gains in listing inventory, up 22% to 7,996,” the report said, comparing the April inventory total to the April 2023 tally of 6,518.
The market share of bidding wars, a proxy for new leases signed above the landlord’s asking price, was more than 21% in Manhattan, the highest level in almost two years, with an average of 10.8%.
The median apartment rent in Brooklyn rose by 3% to $3,599 in April, while the number of new leases ticked down to 3,066 as inventory ticked up to 3,944.
The market share of bidding wars in Brooklyn was the highest level on record for the borough, 28.7%, with an average premium of 14.6%, according to the report.
The median rent in Northwest Queens ticked up to $3,244 as the number of new leases dropped to 678 while the listing inventory grew to 754. The market share for bidding wars in Queens was 20.8 in April.
A new study has found that rents grew more than seven times faster than wages across New York City’s five boroughs last year. The gap between rent growth (8.6%) and wage growth (1.2%) in NYC was larger than in any of the 50 biggest US metro areas.
Wages grew faster than rents nationally and in almost half of the major US metros, according to a new analysis of rental data from Zillow and StreetEasy which compared the data to wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The gap between rent growth and wage growth in NYC is growing, the report found.
“Despite a strong job market in the city, and in some ways because of it, the gap between what a typical renter can afford and the price of rentals on the market is growing,” said StreetEasy Senior Economist Kenny Lee. “New multifamily buildings coming online has eased competitive pressure in many markets, but in New York City, construction just simply can’t keep up with demand.”