Rentals in demand: Upper East Side, two-bedrooms

The Upper East Side has unseated the East Village as the most in-demand neighborhood for prospective tenants hunting down a rental apartment in Manhattan in the last week, according to data from apartment listings website Zumper. Rounding out the top neighborhoods were, in order, Greenwich Village, Gramercy, Hell’s Kitchen and Murray Hill.

“Upper East Side has become increasingly popular over the summer,” Taylor Glass-Moore, Zumper’s chief operating officer, told The Real Deal. “Renters are drawn to its proximity to Midtown and more residential feel than the other popular neighborhoods.”

Two-bedroom apartments held the majority – 44.6 percent – of renter inquiries to brokers. The median rent inquiry was $3,000 a month.

“We saw a drop in searches for studios and a rise in two-bedrooms,” Glass-Moore said, “because some renters are choosing to save some money and live with a roommate.”

One-bedrooms saw 23.2 percent of the leads, and a median inquiry of $2,180 per month, the data show.

Source: Data provided to The Real Deal by Zumper, an apartment listings website. The rankings were determined by a representative sample of emails and phone calls sent by Zumper users in response to Manhattan rental listings available on the site during the week of August 1 through August 8. – Mark Maurer