Manhattan summer renting season brings higher prices, more turnover

Manhattan residential rents increased 1.82 percent in May, but vacancies have also increased nearly 3 percent as the summer turnover begins, according to a May Manhattan rental market report released today by MNS. The average rent now sits 6 percent above its average in May 2010. Harlem, long the cheaper option for renters reluctant to leave Manhattan, has keyed much of the price gains, as non-doorman and doorman studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments all experienced rent growth in May. Doorman two-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood, for example, rose 7 percent in monthly rent to $2,966. Soho and the Financial District also experienced large gains in rents, but their average rents sill paled in comparison to Tribeca, the city’s priciest neighborhood, the report shows. For the second straight month, bargain-hunters may be best-suited looking at Murray Hill pads, where non-doorman two-bedroom unit rents fell 9.6 percent to $3,664 on average. Though the rising vacancy rates throughout the city may appear to soften an otherwise strong report, MNS attributes the vacancies to a glut of apartments turning over in the summer, as landlords try to capitalize on the season’s heightened rental activity. — Adam Fusfeld

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter