Edited by: TJVNews.com
Seems like the mass exodus to the suburbs from New York City that was caused by the coronavirus pandemic did not prevent rental prices in the Big Apple from going up substantially.
The New York Post referenced a new study by online rental platform Zumper which indicated that New York City rents are even higher than those in San Francisco which is the most expensive in the United States in which to reside. The Post reported that the high NYC rents are a harbinger of economic prosperity as the “Big Apple is outpacing the West Coast tech hub’s financial recovery.”
A new report from the StreetEasy real estate website, indicated that neighborhoods including Flatiron, the East Village, and the Financial District of Manhattan are now witnessing rents above pre-Covid levels.
The Gothamist reported that according to Nancy Wu, an economist with StreetEasy, said that trend is the result of landlords exploiting pent-up demand, and attempting to “make up for time and money lost during the pandemic’s lull by raising prices and erasing discounts.”
“Prospective renters should be prepared for tougher negotiations over the next few months as NYC rents continue rising,” she told the Gothamist. “But I expect price growth and landlord expectations to normalize as we head into the colder months.”
The Zumper study indicated that the median one-bedroom rental in the boroughs is now $2,810, compared to a midway price point of $2,800 in San Francisco, according to the NY Post report.
The Post also reported that since Zumper began its data tracking system in 2014, this is the first time New York has outpriced San Francisco. An avalanche of New Yorkers who high tailed it out of the city amid COVID-19 concerns are now returning, according to the study.
The Zumper study indicated that, “People returned to New York as indoor dining and other urban amenities that make the city popular became available again. Rent began to rise as a result … That hasn’t happened in San Francisco.
Zumper also said that rent remains down by 20 percent in the Bay Area city compared to March 2020, whereas rent in the five boroughs is currently only off by about 1 percent from before the pandemic. In 2019, it cost $800 more to rent in San Fran than the Big Apple.
The StreetEasy report indicated that an average one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan at the beginning of the pandemic cost about $3,417. That figure significantly decreased to $2,700 as many left the city, creating the lowest rents there in more than a decade, as was reported by the New York Post.
StreetEasy also reported that those who rent in Brooklyn and Queens saw rents drop by about 10 percent last year. The web site does not keep track of prices in The Bronx and on Staten Island, according to the Post report.
The high end Douglas Elliman real estate firm reported that the average rent in Manhattan currently costs $4,009. The report noted that last month saw the highest amount of lease signings for any year since 2008 in the borough, according to the Post report. Other cities that cost a pretty penny to live in are Boston, San Jose and Washington, DC, according to the Zumper report.
Nationally, an average one-bedroom apartment costs about 9 percent more than it did this time last year, according to the study
