Market Report: Snapshot of the Rental Market Halfway Through the Rental Season
It’s hard to believe, but we are already halfway through the year and this means we are roughly halfway through the peak summer rental season. As expected, rents have increased during the summer months and vacancy rates are extremely low. The yearly summer influx of students into the city has made competition for apartments extremely fierce and good apartments are being taken almost as soon as they hit the market. Prospective tenants needing even just an hour to get their paperwork together or to decide on what they want to do find themselves losing apartments they want to apply for. Not surprisingly, the number of no fee and low fee apartments has decreased as fewer landlords are offering incentives for tenants to move in. Things are definitely heating up, but what do the numbers actually say?
According to the Citi Habitats Market Report for June 2015 as well as the Market Report for the 2nd Quarter of 20151:
Rents have steadily increased in all categories and all areas of the city by an average of 2.78%. This includes studios, 1 bedrooms, 2 bedrooms, and 3 bedrooms.
The vacancy rate for the 2nd quarter of 2015 is a whopping 1.39%, which is lower than 1.52% for the 1st quarter of 2015.
The number of no fee or low fee apartments where the owner is paying something towards the broker’s fee is 11% for the 2nd quarter as opposed to 12% for the first quarter. This figure has dipped to 10% for June.
All those statistics aside, just how much will it cost you to get an apartment in Manhattan right now? Here are the average figures for June 2015:
Average rent in all of Manhattan:
Studio $2,272
1 bedroom $3,016
2 bedroom $4,041
3 bedroom $5,270
Average rent in Manhattan south of 96 Street on the East Side and south of 110 Street on the West Side:
Studio $2,349
1 bedroom $3,232
2 bedroom $4,371
3 bedroom $5,703
As clearly illustrated, living in Manhattan is certainly a very costly prospect.
One thing to keep in mind is that these statistics don’t reflect the fact that the number of apartments that have become available in the summer are much higher than the number of apartments that were available during the winter and spring. Perhaps what is most telling about just how competitive summer rental season can be is the fact that rents can continue to increase, the vacancy rate continues to drop, and owner incentives continue to drop even as the inventory continues to increase. Demand during peak season definitely outpaces supply significantly. Welcome to summer rental season.
The statistics in this blog post are based on the Citi Habitats Market Report for June 2015 as well as the Market Report for the 2nd Quarter of 2015. These are internally prepared reports by Citi Habitats based on company transactions, current company listings, and company research. The author has not independently verified the information and takes no responsibility for any potential errors in the findings. The full report can be found here:
