Rents Falling, Vacancies Spiking: The NYC Rental Market Is Shifting

"A record-high share of rent cuts contributed to a Manhattan median asking rent of $2,990 in the third quarter of 2020 — the first time this figure has been below $3,000 in nine years," reports Emily McDonald.

McDonald is sharing data from StreetEasy’s Q3 2020 Market Reports. The data includes several metrics that tell the story of a suddenly shifting rental market in the nation's most populous, and famously expensive, city.

"The share of Manhattan rental listings on StreetEasy that was discounted during the third quarter rose 22.7 percentage points year over year to a record high of 44.7%, " explain McDonald. "Meanwhile, rental inventory in Manhattan increased by 69.8%, with 72,267 listings available during the quarter — nearly 30,000 more than last year."

Among the other metrics from the report with no recent precedent is the decline of rent in all three boroughs analyzed in the report—Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

StreetEasy Economist Nancy Wu is quoted in the article saying "Renters are no longer willing to pay the commute premium of living in Manhattan when they do not need to commute to an office five days a week."

A lot more data from the report are available in the source article, including specific attention to each of three boroughs analyzed in the report and a long list of neighborhood-level data.