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Manhattan Rents, Still Ludicrously Expensive, Dip Slightly
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 17, 2020
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 17, 2020
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Rents in Manhattan have dropped for the first time in a decade, with much of that dip concentrated in the most expensive units, according to a new report.
The new analysis from real estate website StreetEasy found that the median rent in Manhattan fell to $3,300 in the second quarter of 2020, down from $3,395 in the same period last year.
Landlords in the borough also cut the median asking rent by $221 per month, and offered 34.7% of renters a discount — a record high, per StreetEasy.
It marks the first year-over-year rent drop since the Great Recession, and comes as the number of vacant apartments in Manhattan reached record highs.
But for the average New York City tenant holding out hope that the pandemic will push down skyrocketing rents to more reasonable levels, the actual impact may be marginal at best.
"It frankly doesn’t matter that much," said Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator for the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance.
"We regularly hear about 'rents going down' but that almost always refers to high end apartments at the top of the market. $3395 to $3300 is meaningless to a worker who lost their job because of COVID-19 — the people who are suffering the most because of the pandemic."
Indeed, the report found that rents dropped most substantially on the borough's most expensive apartments; those in the top 20th percentile saw a 1.4 percent decrease in rents to a cool $6,325, compared to a less than 1 percent drop for other units.
Despite the flurry of anecdotal stories about New Yorkers fleeing the five boroughs for the suburbs, the StreetEasy report found that "interest in the outer boroughs shot upward."
Rents in Queens and Brooklyn both increased in the second quarter of 2020, according to the website.
Meanwhile, the city is bracing for a historic rent crisis. According to one analysis, a quarter of NYC tenants haven't paid any rent since March due to the financial impact of COVID-19.
This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled a new rental assistance program, which was derided by tenant activists as "cruel" and "terrible." Within ten minutes of going live on Thursday, the website had crashed, greeting potential applicants with the message: "Too Many Requests."
We reached out to the state agency administering the program, the Department of Homes and Community Renewal, and will update if they respond.
Tagged
COVID-19
rent
the rent is too damn high
manhattan
rent is too damn high
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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