New York City Rent Rises to Historic Price – NBC New York

NEW YORK – Rents in Manhattan, the nerve center of New York, reached their all-time high in May, with the average rent touching $4,000 for the first time, according to a report by the real estate agency Douglas Ellimanone of the largest in the city.

After falling at the start of the pandemic, house prices in the Big Apple have recovered strongly, a trend that has accelerated in recent months with the arrival of many people in the city and has made auctions common. for rental apartments, which end up being rented well above the initial price.

In May, rents in Manhattan were up 2% from April and more than 25% from the same month a year earlier.

This has taken the price of the average apartment to 4,000 dollars and the average – where the most expensive houses weigh more – to almost 5,000 dollars.

On average, renting a studio cost $2,975 a month in Manhattan in May, while one-bedroom apartments were $3,999; those of two at $4,995 and those of three at $6,498.

The situation is not much better in other districts such as Brooklyn, where the average rent increased to $3,250, or in the northwestern area of ​​Queens, the most expensive in that county and the only one considered in the report, which reached $2,950. monthly.

Housing prices are a long-standing problem in New York and were one of the priorities of the previous municipal administration, which multiplied building permits, often forcing the inclusion of affordable units, to try to combat the situation.

However, the cost of rentals has not stopped increasing after the pause experienced during the pandemic and the end of the moratorium on evictions that was decreed due to the health emergency has activists and tenant defense groups very concerned.

Specialists attribute the latest price increases largely to the return of New Yorkers who had left the city during the pandemic, which, together with the high number of people who move for work or recent graduates looking for a home, has caused a sharp increase. Of 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 given that they spend much more time there.

–