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Rent in Manhattan, the heart of New York City, reached an all-time high in May, with the average rent reaching $4,000 for the first time, according to a report by the real estate agency Douglas Elliman, one of the largest in the city.
After falling at the start of the pandemic, housing prices in the Big Apple have rebounded strongly, a trend that in recent months has accelerated with the arrival of many people to the city and that has made bidding for rental apartments commonplace, which end up renting above the initial price.
In May, rent in Manhattan was up 2% over April and more than 25% over the same month last year.
That has pushed the price of the average apartment to $4,000 and the median — where more expensive homes cost more — to nearly $5,000.
On average, renting a studio apartment cost $2,975 per month in Manhattan in May, while one-bedroom apartments were $3,999; two-bedroom apartments at $4,995 and three-bedroom apartments at $6,498.
The situation is not much better in other boroughs such as Brooklyn, where the average rent rose to $3,250, or in the northwestern area of Queens, the most expensive in that county and the only one taken into account in the report, which reached $2,950 per month.
Housing prices are a long-standing problem in New York and were one of the priorities of the previous city administration, which multiplied building permits, often forcing the construction of affordable units, in an attempt to combat the situation.
Experts attribute the latest price increases in large part to the return of New Yorkers who had left the city during the pandemic, which together with the high number of people moving for work or recent graduates looking for homes has led to a sharp increase in demand.
Some also point to rising interest rates, which make buying a home more expensive than renting, and the fact that many people telecommute and are willing to spend more on their home because they spend a lot more time there.
