Despite a flood of new rentals and longer listing times in March, New Yorkers continued to duke it out for apartments at near-record prices.
Rental market activity swelled across New York City last month. High prices and minimal vacancy rates stubbornly persisted, despite higher inventory, a new report by Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel revealed.
Manhattan rents remained at record highs, Brooklyn bidding wars persisted and Queens lease signings surged.
Mahmoud Ammar, a critical care pharmacist, learned the hard way how difficult it has become to find the right apartment for the right price.
Ammar, who works from home, had a lease with a roommate ending on April 1. He began his hunt for his very own one-bedroom in late February.
Ammar and his agent, Tim Cass of Corcoran, spent multiple weekends touring two to three apartments per day, plus some tours scattered through the work week. Ammar had a budget of $3,000 to $3,500 and the desire to live solo in Midtown West.
But he kept losing out on the good ones, affordable one-bedrooms became a pipe dream and nearly every landlord wanted immediate occupancy.
“It became stressful because I knew I’d be moving out in three weeks, and I still didn’t have an apartment,” Ammar told The Post.
At $4,471, Manhattan’s median effective rent — which factors in landlord discounts and concessions — tied for the highest on record, up annually for the sixth time. Despite pricing pain, new lease signings rose in March, a month not typically known for its rental activity. The data signals a difficult rest of the year for hopeful renters.
“Typically you look at the beginning of a month for the start of the following month, but in this environment, you have to take it as soon as you see it,” Cass said. “We missed out on several properties because Mahmoud hesitated.”
Cass said historically the market heats up around Mother’s Day in May. That’s not the case anymore.
“It’s happening much, much earlier now, as we experienced,” Cass said. “March was a very popular month for renters.”
Inventory just met demand in March, the Elliman report found, getting absorbed as fast as it arrived. Vacancy rates in Manhattan barely budged, but listing inventory increased year-over-year by 23.1%.
Despite intense demand, days on the market increased from 57 days in red-hot February to 42 in March, suggesting some modest degree of cooling.
But as Cass and Ammar learned, not all inventory is created equal. Cass described going with Ammar to an apartment on West 57th Street that “sounded too good to be true.”
A line of a dozen people had already formed outside.
“When we finally got inside, the tenant was still sitting in the apartment, and we noticed there were mouse traps,” Cass said. “There was a reason that it was priced so reasonably for a one-bedroom in that neighborhood. We couldn’t wait to get out.”
Median Manhattan rents in March decreased by $5 from February, down to $4,495. But last month’s net-effective rent tied with February for the highest on record, at $4,471, indicating that renters are getting less grace from landlords. Rates of landlord concessions and listing discounts fell in Manhattan.
“You can’t hesitate in this market,” Cass said. “You have to act quickly. If you snooze, you lose.”
Average rental price per square foot also rose to a new high in Brooklyn for the third straight month, and new lease signings in Queens surged annually by 41.6% to 704, the highest in history.
The incidence of bidding wars across the three boroughs declined slightly from February, but the rates remain historically high, particularly in Kings County.
One in three new Brooklyn renters paid more than the landlord asked. One out of five rentals in Manhattan and Northwest Queens — which is home to Astoria — went for above the listing price.
The past several months of heavy competition doesn’t bode well for a rental market beset by economic uncertainty.
“A lot of buyers are having difficulty at the moment, because of interest rates,” Cass said. “If they can’t buy something, they’re getting into the rental market. I think that is increasing the demand.”
Thankfully, Ammar’s story has a happy ending. He settled on an alcove loft apartment in the heart of Midtown West at $3,400 plus full fees. The place came with a doorman, an elevator and big windows.
“Eighth Avenue in the afternoon brings a lot of sunshine in, and with plants and flowers, it just makes it feel really nice,” Ammar said. “And those big windows make a big difference, especially since I work from home. I love the location.”