{"id":100911,"date":"2026-01-15T06:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100911\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:20:08","slug":"manhattan-rents-hover-near-highs-in-sign-of-affordability-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100911\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan rents hover near highs in sign of affordability crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">[NEW YORK] Manhattan apartment hunters have not gotten much of a break this winter as rents continue to hover close to all-time highs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">The median rent on new leases signed last month was US$4,720, up nearly 9 per cent from the previous December, according to appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman. It was just US$30 less than November\u2019s median, which was the highest in the firms\u2019 records. <\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">New York\u2019s rental market tends to cool around the winter holidays, but competition stayed high throughout last year. Listing inventory dropped 16 per cent in December from a year earlier, the largest annual decline since the pandemic-era leasing frenzy in August 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">The persistent demand for leases defies typical market dynamics, according to Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel. Manhattan home sales have been ticking up, which has historically pulled momentum from the rental market. <\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">The fact that both the sales and rental market outperformed in December signals that prices will likely remain high, according to Miller. Tight inventory is a challenging problem to solve in New York, where \u201cit\u2019s tough to build quickly\u201d, he said, so competition will remain intense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">\u201cI\u2019m finding it difficult to come up with a way that affordability will noticeably improve this year,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe best case is to hope for rents to flatten out, but right now they are rising at double the rate of inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-6 border-b border-gray-250 pb-4 font-poppins text-4xs font-medium tracking-widest text-gray-515\">SEE ALSO<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"block h-full w-full\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/property\/manhattan-home-sales-rise-juiced-lower-mortgage-rates?ref=article-see-also\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"relative z-10 h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768458008_510_e224301639832a1f2992664180199d72445417e170e737535a377c7f7281103c.webp\" alt=\"Co-ops made up more than half of all sales and rose 7% annually, outpacing the increase in condo transactions for the first time in more than a year.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\"\/><\/a>Navigate Asia in<br \/>a new global order<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-lct text-lg font-normal leading-snug -tracking-2%\">Get the insights delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Renters in the outer boroughs also faced higher prices. The median rent on Brooklyn leases was US$3,850 in December, up 10 per cent from the year prior. Northwest Queens, an area that includes Astoria and Long Island City, saw median rents climb nearly 8 per cent from a year ago to US$3,652. BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-lucida text-xl font-medium italic leading-normal -tracking-5% text-gray-850\">Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[NEW YORK] Manhattan apartment hunters have not gotten much of a break this winter as rents continue to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-100911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}