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Rents drop, transaction volume goes up, Citi Habitats report shows
Citi Habitats saw rents continue to fall last month but reported an increase in transactions, according to the firm’s October rental market report, released today.
The average rent for an apartment leased by Citi Habitats, the city’s largest rental brokerage, fell between 6 and 9 percent in October of 2009 from the same period last year, the report found (see the full report below).
The average rent for a studio was $1,731, falling 9 percent from $1,901 in October last year, according to the report, which is based on Citi Habitats’ closed transactions.
One-bedrooms rented for an average of $2,384, down 7 percent from $2,563 in October 2008, while two-bedrooms went for $3,307, dropping 8 percent from $3,605 last year. For three-bedrooms, the average rent was $4,494, a dip of 6 percent year-over-year from $4,774.
Rents in all categories fell roughly 1 percent between September and October of 2009, the report found.
The firm said it did around 1,000 transactions in October 2009, up from roughly 700 transactions in the same month of last year. Citi Habitats has done more rental transactions each month of 2009 than the corresponding month last year, which Gary Malin, the company’s president, said was due to greater “vitality and demand” this year.
The report found a vacancy rate of 1.86 percent in October, up from 1.83 percent in the previous month.
The report is one of the city’s many competing rental reports.