According to a stunning market report by Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel, the average rental price in Manhattan has surpassed $5,000 for the first time in Big Apple history.
Specifically, the study found an average Manhattan rent of $5,058 per month, which alone would bring in nearly $61,000 per year for a renter in the city. This figure marks a 1.7% mom increase from the median rent of $4,975 recorded in May, and a 29% year-on-year increase from the median of $3,922 recorded in June 2021.
Last month, Elliman and Miller Samuel announced that the median rent in Manhattan hit $4,000 for the first time ever in May, up 25.2% year over year from the median of $3,195 in May earlier.
The average rent is the average of all price examples. The average rent is the sum of all rents divided by the sample size number.
Composite of the New York Post
For the first time in history, average rents in Manhattan broke the $5,000 mark. Brian Zak/NY Post
After falling to record lows amid COVID, NYC rents continue to hit record highs. Christopher Sadowski for the NY Post
Rents have risen since late 2021 due to a variety of factors, including persistently record-high inflation rates. Locals also began returning to the city from their COVID hideouts, first as schools reopened and later as businesses adopted hybrid office-home arrangements. Out-of-towners working remotely full-time also began moving to New York to take advantage of its location flexibility.
Elliman added that potential buyers have turned to rent as mortgage rates have risen, adding even more pressure to an already tight market, which has lately been characterized by bidding wars to secure leases on a scarce number of units .
In June, 6,433 units were listed for rent in Manhattan — up 11.4% from the 5,776 listed in May, but down nearly 46% from the 11,853 available last June. Among them, the StreetEasy portal shows the city’s most expensive: a 6,240-square-foot penthouse at One57 on Billionaires’ Row in Midtown, listed by Deborah Kern of the Corcoran Group for $150,000, with a view of the Hudson from the front seats and East Rivers and Central Park. For $1,300 a month, the cheapest one-bedroom apartment is near a subway station way up in Inwood.
StreetEasy shows the city’s most expensive listing is a unit at One57, which faces both rivers and Central Park front and center. Evan Joseph Images via The Corcoran Group
The dining area of the One57 rental unit offers the same panoramic view through massive exposures. Evan Joseph Images via The Corcoran Group
Manhattan’s cheapest rental is way up in Inwood.Finders NYC
The report also tracks statistics in Brooklyn and Northwest Queens; a total of 10,271 units were listed between all three areas in June. In June 2021 there were 26,256. Figures for the Bronx and Staten Island are not included.
For its part, Brooklyn recorded an average rent of $3,822, up 20% from last June’s $3,185. Its median, meanwhile, hit $3,300 — a 22% year-over-year increase. Northwest Queens, which includes the premier Astoria, recorded an average rent of $3,352 in June, up 15.1% from the average of $2,913 last June. The median of this region reached $3,002 in June, up 11.2% from last June.
Anna Finkelstein, 24, graduated from Columbia University with a doctorate in physical therapy in May – and for the past month has been looking for a two-bedroom apartment or a flexible one-bedroom apartment to share with her 25-year-old college friend Abby Alden can share, with the help of BOND saleswoman Ekaterina Vorobeva.
Renters looking for a new apartment have faced many challenges since the end of 2021. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post
“Even in the last three weeks, I think I’ve seen almost 25 to 30 apartments — I’ll look at five in a day,” said Finkelstein, adding that she and Alden looked in Midtown East, Midtown West and Upper East Side and Upper West Side with a monthly budget of $4,000.
“We have a pretty wide range of neighborhoods,” she later added, “but that didn’t make our search any easier. That means I walk around more.”
Finkelstein saw an apartment in Manhattan whose entire floor sloped at an angle. Another apartment had its bedrooms in the basement. At an open house, attendees were told that whoever submits the deposit first gets the apartment. At another open house, 30 people queued up the stairs and around the corner for a total of 90 minutes.
“If that happens, you just don’t apply,” Finkelstein said. “You mean no way.”
Though Finkelstein can stay with the family for now and has sublet Alden, they’re hoping things will settle down — and that they’ll be able to sign a lease in August.
“We just have to keep looking — and we keep reaching out to brokers hoping to get something early before it hits the market,” Finkelstein said.