Rent is down in NYC for the third straight month. News 4’s Andrew Siff reports.
Prospective tenants may pay a bit less to get their own slice of the Big Apple in one borough, but that's not the case throughout the city.
According to a report by real estate website StreetEasy, the median asking rent in Manhattan for Feb. 2024 fell 4.6% compared to Feb. 2023. Five neighborhoods in particular fueled this dip, the site found:
| Neighborhood | Median asking rent, Feb. 2024 | Percent change from 2023 |
| 1. Battery Park City | $4,895 | -12.7% |
| 2. Greenwich Village | $3,995 | -7.6% |
| 3. Gramercy Park | $4,585 | -5.9% |
| 4. Lower East Side | $4,100 | -4.6% |
| 5. Upper West Side | $4,295 | -4.1% |
What else has been driving the drop in Manhattan's median rental prices? Slowing demand leads to higher vacancy rates in the borough, according to StreetEasy. In response to that, nearly one in five Manhattan rentals in February offered concessions like at least one month of free rent, an increase of 13% from 2023.
But that's certainly not the case elsewhere in New York City. In Queens, media asking rent jumped 13.5% from Feb. 2023, StreetEasy found, up to $2,950. With the exception of a few neighborhoods where new developments are common, there is an increasingly limited rental inventory in Queens — triggering an increase in demand. In Feb. 2024, there were almost 4,000 fewer rentals on the market, the site found.
StreetEasy predicted landlords could start raising rents amid tougher competition for apartments. In popular neighborhoods like Long Island City, Astoria and Sunnyside, median asking rent was up 8.3% from 2023, and was more than 10% higher than the borough median.
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To find more affordable units, apartment hunters are looking further and further east for deals, targeting places like Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside, StreetEasy found.
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In Brooklyn, the hottest markets continue to be along the waterfront, in places like Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg, and DUMBO. But that hasn't stopped median asking prices in places from East New York from going up as well, as prices jumped 18% to $2,950.
It comes as the New York City Council voted Tuesday to declare an ongoing housing emergency in the city, which extends the rent stabilization law that was set to expire on April 1. The emergency is defined as a citywide rental housing vacancy of less than five percent.
The latest survey shows a vacancy rate of just 1.4% in the city — the lowest number since 1968, according to the NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey. The last time the survey was conducted back in 2021, that number was at 4.4%.
Most experts consider a healthy vacancy rate to be between 5-8 percent. Extending the rent stabilization law blocks landlords from hitting tenants with sharp rent increases and protects the right to renew a lease.
