Manhattan rents held steady in December

New York City rents held the line in December.

The median rent in Manhattan landed at $4,050 last month, “nominally higher” than November’s median of $4,000 but well below July’s record of $4,400, according to a report by the appraiser Jonathan Miller for Douglas Elliman.

Given the 1.3 percent uptick, Miller characterized prices as having “stabilized,” noting that December’s rent aligned with the median rent a year ago. 

Year over year, rents have tracked lower for 13 of the last 14 months as pandemic-era price growth petered out.

In Brooklyn, the month-over-month change in median rent also signaled a normalizing market. Rents slipped less than 1 percent in December from November to a median of $3,469, marking the fourth decline since July’s high. 

The exception was a 0.1 percent increase in November from October.

Still, both markets have seen continued demand as higher mortgage rates have deterred renters from making the leap to buying a home.

In Manhattan, new lease signings rose year over year for the second straight month. In Brooklyn, the metric doubled from the same time last year. 

In Queens, new lease signings surged to the highest rate in 21 months, even as rents went up significantly in the borough. There, the median rent rose 10 percent from November to hit $3,485, a 24 percent increase from December 2022.

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