NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Manhattan rent prices ticked higher in the month before Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election on promises to improve affordability.
The median rent on new leases signed in October was $4,600, up 7.1% from a year earlier and 1.1% from the prior month, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman. This was the third highest on record.
Typically, New York’s rental market cools in the fall, but apartment hunters remained active last month, said Jonathan Miller, the president of Miller Samuel. A decline in inventory is keeping prices elevated.
Housing costs continue to rise for New York’s renters, who make up two out of three residents. Mamdani said in his campaign that he would freeze the price hikes on rent-stabilized apartments, and supported ballot measures aimed at accelerating housing projects. In elections across the country, cost-of-living pressures were top of mind for voters.
Despite fears the city’s richest residents would flee after the election of the democratic socialist mayor, leasing and home sales activity in October shows that “there is no exodus coming out of New York,” Miller said.
“You can’t have rising rent prices and leasing activity if there’s an exodus from the city — it shows just the opposite,” he said. “Housing affordability is getting worse.”
In Manhattan’s luxury rental market, median prices hit $11,995 in October, a 20% surge from the year prior.
Renters who hoped their apartment search would be easier in the outer boroughs found little relief. The median rent on Brooklyn leases was $3,850 in October, 6.9% higher than the year prior and the third highest on record. Northwest Queens, an area which includes Astoria and Long Island, saw median rents jump 7.4% from a year ago to $3,598.