{"id":170858,"date":"2026-03-21T18:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/170858\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:49:27","slug":"manhattan-median-rent-soars-to-all-time-high-of-5000-experts-warn-it-will-only-get-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/170858\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan median rent soars to \u2018all-time high\u2019 of $5,000 \u2014 experts warn it will only get worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The median rent in Manhattan has surged to $5,000.<\/p>\n

Manhattan\u2019s median rent has skyrocketed to an \u201call-time high\u201d of $5,000, and experts warned Mayor Mamdani\u2019s vow to \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d<\/a> will only make matters worse.<\/p>\n

The sobering milestone, reached in February, marks a 6% increase from the previous year, according to reports by The Corcoran Group<\/a> and Rent Hop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cManhattan\u2019s rental market has become more challenging than ever for home seekers,\u201d Corcoran\u2019s Chief Operating Officer Gary Malin said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The median rent in Manhattan has reached $5,000, according to reports from Corcoran and Rent Hop. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, inventory is at the tightest level we\u2019ve seen in nearly four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

A combination of inflation and legislation \u2014 including bills which were supposed to help tenants, such as New York City\u2019s divisive<\/a> FARE and the state\u2019s Housing Stability and Protection acts<\/a> \u2014 have contributed to the problem, realtors told The Post.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no relief in sight, they warned.<\/p>\n

With just a 2% vacancy rate, the rental market is essentially gridlocked.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/p>\n

Gary Malin, the chief operating officer of The Corcoran Group, said it is a difficult time for home seekers in Manhattan. Corcoran Group<\/p>\n

Corcoran reported 5,290 active listings across Manhattan in February, which is 26% fewer than the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s going to pop up, and the prices will keep increasing over time \u2013 they\u2019re not decreasing,\u201d Manhattan Group Realtor Jordan St. John said. \u201cEverything in the world is getting more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rent increases continue to outpace inflation, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In February, rental rates in New York, Newark and Jersey City increased by 3.7% since the previous year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Price Index for the same areas only rose by 3.2% during the same period.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Jordan St. John, a broker at Manhattan Realty Group, said rent prices will only go up. Manhattan Realty Group<\/p>\n

\"Mamdani\u2019s<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s pledge to \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d will only make matters worse, according to realtors and property owners. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, renters could get a \u2018flex-two,\u2019 which is where you get a one bedroom, you put a wall up to make the rent cheaper . . . for like $4,000 a month. Now you need to pay like $5,000 at least,\u201d St. John said.<\/p>\n

The Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses law requires whoever hired a broker to pay the fee, instead of the tenant automatically fronting the cost<\/a>.\u00a0But instead of helping tenants, the FARE act \u201cmade landlords bake this fee into rent, which now has raised the price of rent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A \u201ctwo-flex\u201d is a one-bedroom apartment made into a two-bedroom with a fake wall. Sidnye Unger lives in a two-flex in the Financial District. Courtesy of Sidnye Unger<\/p>\n

This unprecedented rent spike has been years in the making and also stems from the Housing Stability and Protection Act, which placed strict limitations on landlords and barred them from implementing vacancy bonuses.<\/p>\n

The increases would jack up rent on stabilized apartments by 20% for new tenants and made preferential rents \u2014 or rates lower than legally mandated \u2014 permanent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened is because owners can\u2019t really liberate those apartments and make a decent return on them, a lot of those apartments obviously do not hit the open market,\u201d Malin explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s this inventory of listings that could be available that are not because the owner can\u2019t afford to renovate them<\/a>, bring them up to code and make any return on his or her investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rents may continue to climb even higher under the socialist mayor, who supports a rent freeze on the approximately one million stabilized units across the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"St.<\/p>\n

St. John said her clients are having more difficulty than ever finding places in their price ranges. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you think [landlords] are going to make up for that shortfall?\u201d Malin said. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna charge the free market tenants more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start to realize that while people might have gone into all these policies with the best of intentions to help solve a problem, the results tell you that they haven\u2019t worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding yet another layer to the crisis, more than 80% of households earn less than the standard \u201c40-times the rent\u201d NYC landlords require, according to Rent Hop analyst Rohan Sinha.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that restriction, a lot of people are getting weeded out,\u201d Sinha said.<\/p>\n

\"Tyler<\/p>\n

Tyler Chiu, 26, is one of the people being \u201cweeded out\u201d in the competitive market. He cannot afford to move to Manhattan to be near his job. Courtesy of Tyler Chiu<\/p>\n

While Corcoran and Rent Hop both reported that the median reached $5,000, StreetEasy estimated the February median was $4,700<\/a>, a hike of 6.9% from last year.\u00a0Each uses their own data to come up with their figures.<\/p>\n

Tyler Chiu is a 26-year-old radiation therapist still living with his parents on Staten Island \u2014 and might be there for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too expensive to move out. It\u2019s really ridiculous,\u201d Chiu, who works in Manhattan, said.<\/p>\n

\"Sidnye<\/p>\n

Sidnye Unger, 26, has lived in the Financial District for about three years and is afraid for when her lease is up. Courtesy of Sidnye Unger<\/p>\n

Manhattan renters are dreading the end of their leases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am lucky to have a roommate. With rent going up, I don\u2019t foresee myself not having a roommate,\u201d said Sidnye Unger, 26, who lives in a \u201cflex-two\u201d in the Financial District. \u201cI\u2019m trying to mentally prepare for when my lease is up in August.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The median rent in Manhattan has surged to $5,000. Manhattan\u2019s median rent has skyrocketed to an \u201call-time high\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[69781,75,84,83,9,24,63,69782,69780],"class_list":["post-170858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-gary-malin","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sidnye-unger","tag-the-corcoran-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170858","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=170858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}