The Manhattan apartment rental market has been heating up for months, and
second-quarter market reports released today by residential brokerages Citi
Habitats and Prudential Douglas Elliman show skyrocketing rents. Now, the question is how long the rent increases will continue.

The Citi Habitats report, which covers all transactions brokered by the firm in the second quarter and takes concessions into account, shows a year-over-year increase in price of about 10 percent for Manhattan apartments. The
average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan was $2,672 and two-bedroom units
averaged $3,757 per month, up 9.2 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, from the second
quarter of 2010. But three-bedroom apartments experienced the largest price
increase over last year — 11.3 percent — and now rent for $4,985 on average. [more]

Source: Citi Habitats

College graduates looking to land an affordable Manhattan rental apartment in
their first foray into the real world, better act fast — or they may be out of luck. As
the summer rental season inches closer, the market is growing stronger by the
month, according to two reports released today by Citi Habitats that track rental
deals brokered by the firm’s 12 offices.

Manhattan vacancy rates have declined every month since December’s high of 1.34.
In April the rate was 0.94 [more]

White-collar job growth in Manhattan will spur demand for market-rate
apartments in the city this year and push rents to record highs,
Marcus & Millichap predicts in a market report released today. According to the report, New York City’s office-using employers are poised to see their largest year for hiring in a decade, adding a total of 45,000 new positions to their payrolls. In turn, that will boost the number of people looking to rent apartments, pushing down the vacancy rate to 3.3 percent in that sector. Meanwhile, rental rates will reach record highs, Marcus & Millichap said, with asking rents rising 5.7 percent to $3,790 per month. TRD [more]

Manhattan rental prices were relatively stagnant over the past month, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s March market report, which measures activity from mid-February to mid-March. The average rent increased by just .45 percent month-over-month, but showed strong gains over March 2010, with rent up 7.84 percent from a year ago. The priciest average rent was for two-bedroom doorman units in Soho, which asked $8,173 a month, while the least expensive was for Harlem non-doorman studios, which fetched an average of $1,593 a month. TRD [more]

With a modest drop in vacancy rates and an overall stability in rents, the Manhattan rental market is showing signs of strength, according to Citi Habitats’ monthly rental market report. Average Manhattan apartment rents remained relatively flat in February, compared to the previous month, with studios and one-bedroom unit rents climbing 2 and 1 percent, respectively, while two-bedroom apartments saw a 2 percent uptick and rents for three-bedrooms climbed 1 percent. The vacancy rate dipped to 1.18 percent last month, compared to January’s 1.26 percent rate. SoHo/Tribeca saw the priciest average rent this month, with three-bedroom units being leased for $8,554. TRD [more]

The average Manhattan rent remained relatively stable last month, while showing marked improvement over 2010, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s residential rental market report released today. The report, which tracks data from mid-month to mid-month, shows that average rent was up just .4 percent from mid-January, but up 8.01 percent from the same time a year earlier. Two-bedroom doorman units in Soho boasted the priciest average rent — $8,130 a month — while non-doorman Harlem studios had the cheapest, at $1,452. A recent report from Citi Habitats had similar findings. TRD [more]

From the February issue: The cycle of renters in and out of Manhattan has long been one of the city’s most predictable patterns. Young people arrive in the spring and summer, and then hunker down in their apartments, leaving the fourth quarter a relatively dead time of year, market-wise. So landlords dangle incentives to move units in the cold months. But, as with many sectors of the market, this pattern (known as “seasonality” among brokers) changed after the Lehman Brothers crash. With the sluggish economy and near-freeze on hiring, fewer of the young renters were funneled into the city during those warm months. Now that the residential market is slowly finding its footing again, it raises the question: Is seasonality back for rentals? [more]

Average rent for Manhattan apartments is on the rise, according to the Real Estate Group NY’s latest rental market report, which measures data mid-month, despite recent rental reports that reflected a flatter market. The January report, released today, shows that the average rent was up 7.8 percent compared to the same time a year ago, climbing to $3,332. Harlem proved to be the most affordable neighborhood covered in the report, which is based on data cross-sectioned from over 10,000 currently available listings located below 155th Street, with average rents as low as $1,348 for a non-doorman studio in the neighborhood. TRD [more]

Source: Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel

The average Manhattan rent reached $3,499 during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a new Prudential Douglas Elliman report, released today, down 7.7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, when that figure was $3,789. The median price in the residential market, however, stayed relatively flat, climbing 1.1 percent during the same time period.

Inventory, meanwhile, declined to 3,862 homes, down 26.1 percent from a year ago, according to the report, which is based on market-wide data.

Overall, the rental market is showing modest improvement, according to Yuval Greenblatt, an executive vice president with Elliman.
[more]

The vacancy rate is down and rents are up from a year ago in the Manhattan rental market, an indication that conditions may be improving, according to Citi Habitats’ November rental market report. Year-over-year, the vacancy rate dipped slightly to 1.29 percent, from 1.87 percent in November 2009.

The Soho-Tribeca neighborhood’s vacancy rate clocked in at .63 percent, the lowest of all the regions tracked. The West Village had enjoyed a six-month reign as the neighborhood with the lowest vacancy, prior to this latest report. TRD [more]