Multi-bedroom rental shortage in NYC

New York City’s renters are racing for an increasingly limited supply of multi-bedroom units, according to an inaugural quarterly rental market report by RentJuice, with only 36 percent of listed New York City apartments containing two bedrooms or more.

The average price to lease a New York City home is $3,267 per month, but renters are paying $7,782 on average for a unit in west Soho, Manhattan’s most expensive area, RentJuice’s data shows. Other pricey neighborhoods include Tribeca, Central Park South and Battery Park City, which are have monthly rents averaging at $7,782, $5,151 and $4,159 respectively, according to the report.

If a renter is seeking multiple bedrooms, Brooklyn may be the obvious choice. In Carroll Gardens, 70 percent of rentals listed in the third quarter of 2011 had two bedrooms or more, compared to just 36 percent in New York City overall. Nearly 65 percent of listings in Williamsburg also had two-bedrooms or more.

The new report is relatively in line with what previous third-quarter market reports have shown.

Market reports released last week by residential brokerages Prudential Douglas Elliman and Citi Habitats showed that the Manhattan rental market was strong in the third quarter. The average monthly rent for a Manhattan apartment increased 6.9 percent from the third quarter of 2010 to $3,491, Elliman data shows. — Katherine Clarke