NYC rents soar in February – average Manhattan apartments now $5,186 a month

Rents in Manhattan have soared to an all-time high of more than $4,000 as rising interest rates weighed on the market.

The New York neighborhood posted a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase, hitting a median of $4,043 per month in February — or a median average of $5,186. New York City as a whole has an average monthly rent of $2,141.

Manhattan was around 40 percent more expensive than living in Los Angeles, which has an average monthly rent of $2,600. California dominates the top ten with San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego all with average rents above $2,000.

After New York, Boston is the most expensive area to live on the East Coast, averaging $1,950.

Jonathan Miller of real estate agent Douglas Elliman said: “Prices remain at or near record highs as new lease rates rise and rising mortgage rates push potential homebuyers into the rental market.”

The New York neighborhood posted a 10.7 percent year-on-year increase in February to average $4,043 per month in February. The median average was $5,186, while the city as a whole has an average monthly rent of $2,141. Manhattan was around 40 percent more expensive than living in Los Angeles, which has an average monthly rent of $2,600. California dominates the top ten with San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego all with average rents above $2,000.

Manhattan was around 40 percent more expensive than living in Los Angeles, which has an average monthly rent of $2,600

Last month, 4,037 new leases were signed across Manhattan, up 43.5 percent from a year earlier. Compared to January, the number of new rentals increased by 17.3 percent, according to the Douglas Elliman report.

Miller forecast even higher rents for the county in the coming months as the Fed is likely to continue raising interest rate rents while the local economy remains resilient.

Large apartments with three or more bedrooms are in high demand, according to a separate report from the Corcoran Group.

The average rent for studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments rose 5 to 6 percent this time last year, while the price for apartments with three bedrooms or more rose 13 percent to an average of $9,592 a month.

The Chelsea/Flatiron neighborhood saw its biggest jump of 2021, up 10 percent to $6,904 in February. SoHo/Tribeca remained the most expensive, where residents spend an average of $10,115 per month, up 5 percent from a year ago.

Although rents remain achingly high for many Americans, the cost of apartment dwellers across the country is falling after having skyrocketed in recent years.

The U.S. median rent rose 2.4 percent year over year to $1,942 in January, the lowest annual increase since June 2021, according to data from Rent, which tracks listings for apartments and rental homes.

Median rent peaked at $2,053 in August, while the annual growth rate, according to Rent, peaked at nearly 18% in March last year.

On a monthly basis, the national median rent fell about 2 percent in January from December, the fourth decline in five months, the company said.

After a sharp rise in 2021 and most of 2022, rental growth has gradually moderated amid slowing demand and increasing competition from new housing construction, which has put pressure on landlords to ease rent increases.

“It’s the inventory, the fact that rents have been so high, a lot of people not sure about the economy and just staying put and not moving as much,” said Jon Leckie, a researcher at Rent .

Even with rent growth slowing, the sharp increases of recent years have squeezed tenants’ budgets, eating up a larger chunk of their income.

A view of the downtown Los Angeles skyline from Kenneth Hahn Park as a winter storm sweeps through California on February 26, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO: California dominates the top ten with San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego all with average rents in excess of $2,000

According to Moody’s Analytics, the national median rent-to-income ratio hit 30 percent in the fourth quarter. That ratio was the highest in the more than 20 years that Moody’s has tracked it.

Households that pay 30 percent or more of their income for rent are classified as “cost-burdened” by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“As the gap between rental growth and income growth widens, Americans’ wallets are feeling financial distress as wage growth lags behind rental growth,” Moody’s economists wrote in a January report.

The course of rental price growth becomes significantly more inconsistent when looking at individual metropolitan regions. Rents have continued to rise sharply in many metropolitan areas in the Southeast and Midwest as more people move from the West and Northeast to where housing tends to be more expensive.

Median rent in the Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina metro area rose 22.5 percent year over year in January, while in Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio, it rose 17.5 percent, according to Rent.

Among metro areas where median rents fell the most in January from a year earlier: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona, down 6.7 percent and Oklahoma City, down 6.3 percent.

Rents across the country are unlikely to fall sharply as demand for housing remains strong and the high mortgage rates that have stalled the home-buying market are forcing many would-be homebuyers to keep renting.

“What will happen is when we get back into the warmer months people will start moving again and you will see the demand that we lost over the winter and that will push prices up again” said Leckie.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk