New York City rents retreat from record highs as market starts to cool

RENTS in Manhattan, Brooklyn and part of Queens fell in October as the New York City apartment market continued to soften from record highs reached during the summer.

The median rent on new Manhattan leases signed last month was US$4,195, down 3.6 per cent from September, according to appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Rents peaked in July and August at US$4,400.

The October price declines were more pronounced outside Manhattan. Rents dropped for a third straight month in Brooklyn, slipping 5.7 per cent to US$3,490. Prices fell in the part of Queens that includes Long Island City and Astoria, with the median down 9.4 per cent to US$3,198.

The drops suggest New York rents are returning to the seasonality seen before the pandemic. The city’s rental market boomed in 2021 and 2022 with prices routinely setting new records. Now, the market’s moving back to its trend of peaking in the summer and easing slightly till the rest of the year.

“Distinct seasonal ebbs and flows seem to be in store for the market instead of the rapid upward trajectory that broke records every month or two,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.

While rents have come off their peaks, they are still roughly 20 per cent higher than they were before the pandemic, Miller said. He does not expect the seasonal declines to bring rents closer to those levels.

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“Pricing has been reset and we’re not expecting a correction in rents in the near term,” he said. BLOOMBERG