The jump comes alongside a sharp drop in supply: Listing inventory last month plunged more than 39% year-over-year in Manhattan, one of the steepest declines the market has seen in a decade. The trend continued across the East River, where the median rent in Brooklyn also hit a record $4,500 in July, while inventory fell by 27% compared to last year. <\/p>\n
The decline in listings can be in part attributed to a growing share of inventory \u201cgoing private\u201d thanks to landlords and brokers increasingly keeping listings off public portals like StreetEasy or RentHop, according Jonathan Miller, the director of markets at StreetMatrix.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not normal,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of inventory that\u2019s going behind paywalls that the market can\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Leasing volume<\/a> in Manhattan is down nearly 19% even as prices hit records \u2014 a sign that scarcity, not demand alone, is driving costs higher, he said. <\/p>\n Nationwide, median rents<\/a> for one-bedrooms were flat in July from the same time last year, according to a report by rental site Zumper. Many other major cities have seen rents fall, including In Los Angeles and Miami. In San Francisco, though, one-bedroom rents jumped 23% from a year earlier, while active listings fell about 30%.<\/p>\n Luxury Feels It Most<\/p>\n The market squeeze is hitting the top 10% of the market the hardest. The median rent for a luxury Manhattan apartment<\/a> surged 31% annually to $13,750, more than $1,000 higher than the median rent in June, according to Miller Samuel and The Real Deal. <\/p>\n Manhattan has half as many listings in the luxury segment as it did last July \u2014 a steeper drop than the market-wide decline, suggesting that high-end apartments are disappearing faster from public view, said Miller. In desirable neighborhoods like the Upper West Side and the West Village, upscale rental complexes advertise available rentals to eagle-eyed passersby with signs outside entrances instead of listing to the masses online. <\/p>\n Another factor Miller sees squeezing luxury supply is uncertainty around the city\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax<\/a>, which has some prospective homebuyers opting to rent high-end apartments instead.<\/p>\n Renters Left Scrambling<\/p>\n Some tenants are forking over $4,000 broker fees to access hidden listings and avoid competition. Other renters, like Mollie Sheperdson, are left competing to secure a lease from the shrinking pool of public inventory. More than one in four Manhattan apartments were leased after a bidding war, according to the data from Miller Samuel Inc. <\/p>\n Sheperdson, 35, started her search early in May, inquiring about more than 100 listings and touring 20 apartments. She spent a sweltering day crammed into a basement studio in Manhattan\u2019s Chelsea neighborhood with more than 30 others who were interested in the $2,500 apartment, and she spent several nights monitoring StreetEasy for listings that dropped at midnight. <\/p>\n Sheperdson, who works in marketing, ultimately snagged a rent-stabilized<\/a> studio on the Upper East Side for $2,000 a month with a lease starting in July. She said she was shocked by \u201chow insane the search was.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cYou really have to put in the time and be willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice,\u201d Sheperdson said. \u201cI\u2019d show up to an open house on the weekend, and there\u2019d be 50 other people there. It was just complete chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n