“New York City’s rental market is effectively locked in place,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com®.
“Asking rents are rising, while at the same time, the inventory for units is being squeezed by record‑low turnover.”
Rents climbed as mobility stalled
The report highlights rent stabilization as a key driver of the city’s low vacancy and low mobility. Roughly 40% of New York’s rental stock is stabilized, with those units posting a vacancy rate just under 1% in 2023, compared with about 1.8% for market‑rate apartments.
The stay‑put trend is most extreme in the Bronx, where 93.7% of renters remained in place in 2024 and rents have risen more than 50% over six years. Overcrowding, defined as more than two people per bedroom, is nearly twice as common in rent‑stabilized homes as in market rentals, the report found.
“As residential mobility breaks down, we see a domino effect on the city’s economy,” said Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu.