How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects New York Housing Costs

The proportion of free housing for rent in Manhattan is currently the highest in more than a decade. This publication writes Forbes.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the crisis caused by it, many residents were forced to reconsider their consumer habits. This has led to the fact that rental prices for real estate in most of New York have dropped significantly.

Currently, the share of free rental housing in Manhattan the highest in more than ten years and amounts to almost 4%, which further enhances this decline.

The median rental price in Manhattan declined 6,6% in June from the prior year to $ 3 per month. Vacancy rose 242% year-over-year to 85 units, a record one month, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. said in a report on Thursday, July 10. and broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

A similar situation is observed in Queens where average rents fell 8,2% to $ 2. “We have a barely functioning market,” says Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel.

On the subject: How to rent a house in New York in 2020: tips for those who want to move

Until June 22, real estate agents were forbidden to show objects in person, which made it difficult to find tenants, and also discouraged them from signing new lease agreements.

Nevertheless, last month, compared with May, the number of new lease agreements concluded increased by 45%, as a result of which tenants were found for 3171 properties. To get these tenants, landlords had to try, writes the publication Bloomberg... They lured customers with discounts on rentals, which averaged 2% - double the number of last year. Potential tenants were also offered special bonuses, such as free months of stay and brokerage fees.

"At this point, it looks like the rental market may suffer more than the buying market," Miller said, "because the bias towards unemployment was more significant towards hourly wages and lower-wage workers."

However, rental prices are not falling everywhere. In brooklyn for example, the median rental price in June increased by 1% compared to the previous year and amounted to $ 2, although this was the smallest increase in the last 944 months.

Thousands of New Yorkers have fled the city in recent months and moved to less densely populated areas of the country. “In March, the United States Post Office received 56 mail forwarding requests from New York, more than double the monthly average. In April, the number of requests increased to 81 thousand, ”says an analysis published by The New York Times.

This outflow has partly contributed to the spread of the virus in other parts of the United States. The number of new cases in New York City has declined significantly since the peak in April, while in Texas, Florida and other parts of the country, the rate is growing rapidly.