The sky-high rents hammering New York City tenants hit record-breaking levels for the second consecutive month, with no signs of slowing as the Big Apple heads into peak rental season.
The average Manhattan apartment rental in April was a whopping $4,241 for the month — a 1.6% increase from March‘s $4,175 median price, which shattered the previous record of $4,150 established last July.
The rent marks an 8.1% jump from April 2022, according to a joint market report conducted by real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel.
The spike in average rent for April was even worse in Brooklyn and Queens, surging 14.8% and 12.8%, respectively, compared with last year.
Back in Manhattan, the average monthly cost for a studio apartment saw the biggest increase from last year. It was up 13.5% in April, with a median price of $3,235.
A one-bedroom apartment averaged $4,200, up 5% from last year, while a two-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $5,500, up 11% from 2022.
Concessions, meanwhile, dipped to their lowest level since November 2019, the report showed. Landlords only offered incentives, such as free months, for 12.9% of leases — down from 15.7% last year.
The continued price surge could be the cause of Manhattan’s growing listing inventory, which expanded annually for the sixth time.
Despite an apparent lax in demand, Manhattan apartments only stayed on the market for an average of 20 days in April — down from 39 days in March.
Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller told The Post that seeing record-high rents for the second straight month, coupled with the “roughly 20% month-over-month drop in new leases” suggests that “tenants are perhaps throwing their hands up and renewing because options are limited for equivalent amenities.”
The report said the skyrocketing rental market price trend has “the potential to see more despite rising inventory,” noting that the rental season has yet to reach its end-of-summer peak.
Miller added rent drops “are contingent on an economic event, like a recession, with notable job loss.”
Without such an economic event to change the course of the rental market, “it’s reasonable that we may see additional records over the next four months,” Miller said.
Renting an apartment in Brooklyn in April proved to be less expensive than in Manhattan despite the borough’s 14.8% increase in average rent compared to last year.
Studios in Brooklyn ran for an median of $2,900 for April, down 3.2% from last month. A one-bedroom apartment averaged $3.252, down 0.3% from last year, while a two-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $3.750, up 1.4% from 2022.
Brooklyn apartments for rent averaged just 15 days on the market.
In Northwest Queens, another market tracked on the report, the median rental price ticked 6.8% higher than March, to $3,525.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
