Apartment rentals New York with Manhattan Real Estate Trends

Rents in Manhattan have been soaring over the past few months, with several rental records being broken and New York City’s real estate sector enjoying a flurry of activity. But the most recent market report released by Citi Habitats suggests that the surge in rents is finally taking a breather, with average rents stabilizing in September as compared to August. In some neighborhoods the rents have actually dipped slightly too. However, there’s a catch—while the rents have plateaued, they're still holding strong at their extremely high rates. Additionally, landlord concessions for rental apartments such as a month without rent or no brokerage fees are now more rare than they've ever been, indicating that Manhattan renters don't need extra incentives to sign a lease.

“The rent is too damn high!” This phrase, adopted as the slogan and the official name of by a New York City political party founded by Jimmy McMillan, is something that every New Yorker has probably uttered at least once during his or her stay in the city that never sleeps. And if the latest real estate reports are anything to go by, it seems this sad refrain is not likely to lose its popularity any time soon: high rents are still very much the norm for apartments in Manhattan. The Manhattan Rental Market Report for July by MNS has revealed that as the first half of the year came to closure, most rents for apartments in the city have seen increases as compared to June.

Tough economic times have caused New Yorkers to tighten their purse strings, and some of the ones bearing the brunt of these hard times are New York’s real estate brokers. In a recent survey conducted by Rent.com, four out of ten New Yorkers said that they would not like to pay a broker’s fee when they look for an apartment. In a city where finding a rental is often fraught with difficulties, city residents don’t seem to want to have the broker’s fee added on to their list of expenses. The broker’s fee is typically about 15 percent of an apartment’s yearly rent, but with the double whammy of a surge in rents and a dip in vacancies in the city, New Yorkers are holding on to all their dollars to make sure they can afford their homes.

Believe it or not, there are 13 other cities in America where 2-bedroom apartments are more expensive than in New York City. So, in theory, if you moved to Honolulu, San Francisco, or even Long Island to rent a 2-bedroom apartment, you would have to pay more. These stats were compiled by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition using “fair market” rents – basically that means that they included rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments – and this methodology certainly brought NYC’s ranking down. After all, no other city in America has as many rent-regulated apartments as New York City, not by a long shot. However, this study is far from nuanced, especially since it doesn’t break down average rents for 2-bedrooms by borough. Still, the report highlights an important point: if you want an affordable 2-bedroom in New York City, you might want to look north of 96th Street in Manhattan.