Average Rent Cost in Manhattan Shoots up to $5,000 Per Month

The median rent in Manhattan hit a record high of $5,000 per month, a six percent increase from the previous year, a new survey reveals, and that is forcing many younger New Yorkers to look outside the borough. Some young renters say they will never come back.

Meanwhile, net income for landlords of rent stabelized apartments in core Manhattan neighborhoods jumped ten percent in the most recent years for which figures are available from the Rent Guidelines Board.

Emma Lao, 26, and her husband moved into her mother’s house in Trumbull, CT two years ago when they realized they could no longer afford their rent in Manhattan. When they lived in NYC, they were lucky enough to get a Covid deal.

“It was on the Upper West Side, which was an awesome location,” Lao said. It was $4,000 a month for a four-bedroom, two-bath, where they lived with three other people.

By the end of their lease, the rent soared to $5,000 a month, which forced them to move out, “It’s insane because we are a dual income household,” remarked Lao.

They packed their bags and moved to an apartment in Harlem where the rent was $2,450 for a one bedroom, “The unit itself was nasty. There were roaches and rats. The location was great, but we were going crazy not having any amenities. We didn’t have a dishwasher. We didn’t have any laundry in-unit. The laundry in the basement was so expensive, and it was roach infested down there,” said Lao.

With Lao only needing to be in the city three times a week for her video editing job, and her husband moving to a fully remote position, the cost of living in NYC was no longer worth it. Once again, the couple moved out and have now been living with Lao’s mother.

“And what’s crazy to me is that we both work good jobs. We make a great income on paper. We’re well above the household average and yet we still can’t afford to live in New York City,” she said.

She and her husband have serious future plans that sadly NYC cannot be a part of, “We simply need to save because we want to start a family one day and we know for a fact that it would be impossible to do that in New York City without raising risks,” remarked Lao. The two are desperate to make a stable life for themselves, “I would live in a shack at this point, but I just want a home and that seems more and more impossible.”

The picture was not much different for young workers living in the ostensibly less expensive borough of Brooklyn.

Working in tech sales and making roughly $250,000 a year, 28-year- old Alexander Donovan left his apartment in Brooklyn Heights once his rent had hit $5,000 a month from the original $2,000 a month he was paying for two years. He ended up moving to Long Island, which is where he lived before coming to NYC.

“Finding a place to live here is always a nightmare. This state is awful and this city is worse. My whole family is here and that’s all that’s keeping me here, but my brothers and I all want to get out of here.” And at the current prices, he vows, “I’ll never move back.”

The median household income is around $87,640. With the average cost of an apartment at $60,000 a year, it means the “average” New Yorker is priced out of the market.

“Manhattan’s rental market has become more challenging than ever for home seekers.” said Gary Malin, Chief Operating Officer of The Corcoran Group, which compiled the survey that showe the average rent last month over $5,000 for the first time. “Meanwhile, inventory is at the tightest level we’ve seen in nearly four years.”

Corcoran reported 5,290 active listings across Manhattan in February, which is 26 percent fewer than the same period last year. Landlords claim that changes to rent regulation laws made as part of the passage of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act in 2019 which limited rent hikes on rent-stabilized units and eliminated ways landlords used to raise rents, has proven to do more harm than good. Because there are fewer apartments entering the market, the prices have shot up.

Also attributing to this is the NYC FARE act, which made it the landlord’s responsibility, rather than the tenant’s, to pay broker fees. This eliminated huge upfront costs which were often 12 percent to 15 percent of annual rent. However, rather than easing the financial burden of the tenants, landlords hiked up rent costs. Data from Columbus International suggested an approximate five percent increase in some cases.

During his campaign, Mamdani proposed to freeze the rent for the nearly one million New Yorkers who live in recent stabilized apartments. The nine panel Rent Guidelines Board with a majority of appointees made by Mamdani, met for the first time on March 26. The current regulations expire on September 30. The new RGB rates will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2026.

The idea of a rent freeze was given a boost when the RGB released figures at their first meeting that showed Net Operating Income (NOI) for landlords of rent stabelized apartments increased 6.2% citywide in 2024, marking the third consecutive year NOI has increased.

And profits for landlords were going up 10 percent in core Manhattan, the area south of West 110th Street and East 96h Street. Non-Core Manhattan saw net income grow nearly as fast, up 9.1%. The largest increases occurred in Midtown, Manhattan, up 17.4%, the RGB found.