Renters take Manhattan; Brooklyn gap widens
Manhattan’s apartment market is heating up in the busiest season for moving, sending rents to a fiveyear high and shifting the advantage back to landlords after a brief respite for tenants.
The median monthly rent rose 3.1 percent in May from a year earlier, to $3,300, the highest since February 2009, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The vacancy rate slipped to 1.58 percent, from 1.60 percent.
Rents are rebounding after a sixmonth slide that started in September, when a surge in home sales helped push up apartment vacancies. Rigid mortgage standards and higher prices are tipping wouldbe buyers into the rental market, while employment growth is increasing the pool of potential tenants, said Jonathan Miller, president of New Yorkbased Miller Samuel.
New York City added 75,000 jobs in the 12 months through April, according to the state Labor Department. The unemployment rate was 7.9 percent, down from 8.8 percent in April 2013.
The months from May to September are typically the busiest time for rentals, as college students graduate and get jobs and families settle down before the next school year starts.
Last month, 7 percent of new leases included incentives to entice tenants, down from 9 percent in April and the lowest level since October, according to Citi Habitats, which also released a report on the Manhattan rental market Thursday. Those offers will continue to dissipate, said Gary Malin, president of the brokerage.
More renters who already live in Manhattan are staying put. The number of new leases in May fell almost 23 percent from a year earlier, suggesting tenants remained in their apartments as better deals elsewhere got harder to find, Miller said.
In Brooklyn, New York’s most populous borough, new leases tumbled 53 percent, according to Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Rents jumped 8.6 percent from May 2013, bringing the monthly median to $2,800, or $500 less than in Manhattan.
“We were wondering at one point if Brooklyn would be as expensive as Manhattan, but the gap has widened,” said Luciane Serifovic, executive vice president and director of rentals at Douglas Elliman.