‘How can you live here?’ Rents in Manhattan, B’klyn soar, says report

The rent’s really too damn high. A newly-released report indicates the average city rents and rent per square foot soared last month, with record January median highs of more than $4,000 a month reported in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The average Manhattan rent climbed to $4,097 last month, the third-highest hike on record and up more than 15% from January 2022, said the report from real estate firms Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.

In Brooklyn, the average rent set a new January median high of $4,165 — a jump of more than 30% from the year before.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s extremely high,” said Katherine Rodriguez, 30, a lifetime resident of Williamsburg. “The whole neighborhood is changing from what it used to be. The buildings, the culture. Everything’s more expensive. It’s not the same any more.”

And northwest Queens, which covers Astoria, saw a surge of 14.2% in rent costs since last January, with a median rental price of $4,369 a month. The area has seen four straight months of higher rents, the study found as the city continues its rebound from COVID-19.

Social worker Cladidia Cordoba said the prices were already too high, citing her $2,200 monthly rent for a Queens studio apartment.

“New York is only for rich people,” she complained. “It’s crazy. And the landlords want the first month (rent), the last month, and a security deposit. My friends from out of town say, ‘Are you crazy? How can you live there?’ ”

The report also found the Manhattan vacancy rate fell for the first time in nine months, and the borough’s luxury median rent — covering the top 10% of rentals above $8,300 — soared to $11,000. The report said the figure was the third-highest ever and 22% higher than pre-pandemic numbers.

“That sounds about right,” said office manager Nick Brandes, 25, of Bedford-Stuyvesant. “It’s not a surprise.”

The Legal Aid Society responded by issuing a call for state lawmakers to sign off on legislation protecting tenants from unwarranted evictions and rate hikes.

“Despite decreasing inflation, rents remain at unprecedented levels, forcing tenants from their homes or onto the streets or into local shelters,” said society attorney Judith Goldiner. “So long as Albany fails to advance ‘Good Cause’ to equip tenants with basic protections ... this troubling trend will continue.”

Just last month, Mayor Adams and top city planning officials provided new details on their push to convert underused office space into apartments in New York’s business districts.

A proposed plan would allow for the rezoning of millions of square feet in city office buildings for residential use.

The reuse plan specifically mentioned downtown Flushing and the Hub in the Bronx as candidates for conversions. Currently, office-to-residential conversions are permitted only in Financial District buildings erected in 1977 or before — and in other city business districts with buildings constructed prior to 1962.