For today's does of "this surprises no one," The Real Deal has reported that Manhattan's rental market could slow down drastically in the coming months.
Are you surprised that vacancy rates are high, new leases are down, and landlords are making lots of concessions? We aren't.
For the 23rd month in a row, rents in Manhattan have inched higher, but the lack of new deals has created a looming market slowdown.
Last month, median rents in Manhattan increased by 1.5% last month. From January to February Manhattan's median one-bedroom rent price creeped up to $3,350 a month.The result? Well, more and more apartments are remaining empty.
This month, vacancy rates hit the second highest rate in nine years. Now, 2.82% of Manhattan's apartments stand empty. That's probably because brokers are running rampant in Manhattan, which, coincidentally, is why we have Oliver.
Oliver is a no-fee apartment finding app, and it’s so, so much better than paying a broker. Got an iPhone? Awesome. Download the Oliver app for iOS here. Don’t? It’s okay. We got you. Download the Oliver app for Android here.
"We're clearly seeing a slowdown," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel and author of Douglas Elliman's latest rental market report.
In January, 3,373 new apartments were leased, which is a huge, 19.8% drop from January in 2015.
"The decrease can be attributed to the success of landlords in convincing tenants to renew their leases, as well as high rents that drove tenants to outer boroughs," Miller said.
There was also a surge in landlords making concessions. In January, rentals with concessions reached 16.4%, which is almost twice the five-year average.
[anad]
What sort of concessions? A report by Citi Habitats found that 17% of last month's rentals either waived one month's rent or broker's fee, which is a 7% increase in concessions from January 2015.
Things aren't as drastic in Brooklyn or Queens.
In Brooklyn, median rent spiked to $2,923 per month, which is a .8% increase from December of 2015, and a .8% increase from January of 2015.
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In Queens, median rent actually fell 4.8% from January 2015. In January, median rent in Queens was $2,767. Queens also saw a 53.1% increase in new leases from January of 2015, which is mostly due to a high number of new rental projects that entered the market.
Overall, unless you're moving to Queens, renting seems kind of bleak.
At least if you rent with Oliver, you can forgo that pesky thousands-of-dollars broker fee, and find an apartment on the app for free, so that's always a plus.
Download the Oliver App for Your iPhone Right Here.
[via The Real Deal] [Feature Image Courtesy Fortune]