NYC Rent Increases Are The Highest In Nearly A Decade
Coming off of pandemic discounts, tenants are now facing surging rents while landlords are struggling to keep up with maintenance costs.
NYC has always been an expensive place to live—it was even named the most expensive U.S. city for rent—however, many tenants are now facing soaring rents, some even greater than pre-pandemic prices.
A new statistic by the New York Times shows that NYC rent increases are some of the highest since 2013.
According to a report by Douglas Elliman, NYC boroughs have seen a steep increase in year-over-year median rent at near-record levels: Manhattan 19.4%; Brooklyn 11.3%; Northwest Queens 20.8%. Between January 2021 to January 2022, rents rose 33%, according to Apartment List.
As demand for real estate across the boroughs continues to increase, rental inventory has steadily declined. According to StreetEasy, “there were 128,167 apartments available for rent during the fourth quarter [in 2020] compared to 60,966 in 2021.” With less available apartments, renter’s are facing higher price tags.
The New York City Rent Guidelines Board, responsible for regulating rents, recently approved the largest increase in nearly a decade for approximately 2 million New Yorkers in rent-stabilized units. Though it still needs formal approval, the decision would raise one-year leases up 2-4% and two-year leases up 4-6%. Such a large increase hasn’t occurred since 2013 when there was a 4% increase on one-year leases and 7.75% increase on two-year leases, shared the New York Times.
According to the Rent Guidelines Board, rent-stabilization originated in 1969 as a way to establish affordable housing after rents were rising on post-war buildings. Approximately one million apartments in NYC are rent-stabilized.
Though the five to four vote by the panel may come as a shock to NYC renters, the decision appears to come to a compromise between landlords ask to increase rents and tenants wishes to keep them low.
Many NYC tenants struggled to make rent once the pandemic hit, while landlords were wrestling with rising inflation and costs of building maintenance.
Find out more information on the Rent Guidelines Board website.