Market report king adds rentals to repertoire

The most trusted name in New York City residential real estate statistics, Jonathan Miller, is finally releasing his long-awaited quarterly rental report.

Prudential Douglas Elliman is slated to publish its first-ever quarterly Manhattan rental market overview next Thursday. The report will be prepared by Miller, who is the president and CEO of Miller Samuel.

Miller has authored Elliman’s quarterly reports for real estate sales in Manhattan since 1994. Miller also produces Elliman’s quarterly reports for Brooklyn, Long Island and Queens and the Hamptons/North Fork, and has emerged as an oft-quoted source for residential market data.

The city’s other major brokerage firms, including the Corcoran Group, Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, also release quarterly market reports on residential sales.

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But until now, the rentals market has been a much more secretive business. With landlords reluctant to release inventory or financial information, there’s very little market information available to consumers. That has begun to change now that real estate Web site Streeteasy.com and brokerage Citi Habitats and the Real Estate Group New York have each begun compiling rental information, but information about rentals is still spotty. That may change even more now that Miller, who is known for the breadth and specificity of his reports, is turning his attention to the New York City rental market.

“It will give consumers and landlords a better tool to measure market data, and maybe that will help people make more informed decisions,” said Miller, who noted that he has been collecting historical data on the Manhattan rental market for quite some time, but hasn’t gotten around to compiling it in a report form.

When The Real Deal asked for a sneak peak of his second-quarter report, Miller said he couldn’t reveal much. But he did offer this tantalizing bit of information:

“Where do you think all those first-time buyers come from? The rental market.”