According to Krishna Rao, an economist at StreetEasy, although rents in New York have risen sharply for nearly 10 years, the situation has been changing over the past five months.
Both Manhattan and Brooklyn started the year with a reduction in the average rent value for the first time since 2010. In Manhattan, the average rent fell 0.5% from the previous month to $3,198 in January, marking the fifth consecutive month of decline. Brooklyn, on the other hand, saw the average price decrease by 0.8% to $2,806, marking the sixth consecutive month of rent decline.
“[This] will always be a competitive market,” says Grant Long, senior economist at StreetEasy. “So, there will still be people out there looking for places, but there is a total slowdown [now].”
“The price of rents is most affected in areas with construction,” explains Long. Additionally, according to him, rents have increased every month since the worsening of the financial crisis in 2010. Seven years later, this trend is leveling off.
“We will continue to observe how new constructions change [these] neighborhoods,” he says. “We don’t see rent prices plummeting, but we do see a softening of the market.”
“Rents are declining, but they are still high,” says Long. For the best deals, Long recommends Kingsbridge and Mott Haven in the Bronx; Sunnyside and Astoria in Queens; and Gowanus and Prospect Park South in Brooklyn, all of which are growing in popularity. “Each neighborhood has something to offer.”