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Citi releases first peak season rental report
Manhattan report shows average rents dropping
Citi Habitats released its first-ever peak season rental report today, analyzing Manhattan’s rental market performance during the industry’s peak months: May through August.
Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said in the report that the time period is particularly significant.
“During this period, the market experiences increased activity due to several factors, including students graduating from schools and universities, new hires relocating to Manhattan and current renters reassessing their housing situation,” Malin said. “Additionally, many landlords stagger leases, when possible, so as to have leases end during this period of higher demand.”
The data, compiled using Citi Habitats’ closed transactions, compares average rents in studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and shows prices dropping. Average rents across the borough — excluding incentives — dropped by 8 percent or more between May and August 2009, compared to the same four months in 2008, with studio apartments and two-bedroom apartments showing the steepest drop at 11 percent.
(See the full Citi Habitats report below.)
Despite the drop in prices, vacancy rates during the 2009 peak season rose less than half a percentage point from the same time period a year before. Citi Habitats also saw a sharp uptick in its rental transactions — it completed approximately 5,700 deals during peak season 2009, approximately 1,100 more than in 2008.
Meanwhile, TDG/TREGNY has released its September 2009 Manhattan rental market report showing that increased rental activity in September is helping to stabilize prices. Still, the TREGNY report was reluctant to predict a market recovery. “While September did show modest improvement, the numbers are not strong enough to indicate that the market will rebound this year,” the report says.
(See the full TDG/TREGNY report below.)
The Real Deal recently looked at the state of the Manhattan rental market in a Webcast. TRD