NYC multifamily vacancy rate climbs to 5.3% in Q2

Manhattan sales volume hit $1.6 billion, up by 4% year-over-year

New York City, the largest multifamily market in the U.S., saw a slight uptick in rent per unit year-over-year to $2,534, according to a national second-quarter multifamily report from brokerage CBRE.

Year-over-year rent in the city climbed 1.4 percent.

In the second quarter of 2014, New York saw a vacancy rate of 5.3 percent. The vacancy rate level was behind Atlanta, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Norfolk, Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Memphis – all among the top 50 multifamily markets.

The city had a vacancy rate increase of 20 basis points year-over-year. Net absorption over the last four quarters was 12,942 apartment units. Across the U.S., the vacancy rate was 4.4 percent, a drop of 20 basis points. The average $1,380 in rent is a 2.6 percent jump.

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Manhattan and the other New York City boroughs, lagging behind Los Angeles, were among the most active markets in terms of sales volume during the first half of 2014, according to CBRE. Apartment sales volume in Manhattan hit $1.6 billion in the second quarter, up 4 percent year-over-year.

“Most of the nation’s major markets are firmly in the expansion phase of their cycles, with revenues well above their pre-downturn (2007-2008) peak levels,” the report said.

The New York market was the main contributor of the slowdown in annualized growth in the national rent index in the second quarter. The national same-store effective rent grew at annualized rate of 2.9 percent, falling from 3.2 percent, the report shows. — Mark Maurer