For those of you who can’t get enough of data and statistics, here are three rental market reports for Q2, each with their own unique flavor: Elliman, TREGNY, and Citi-Habitats. The takeaways that we have based on aggregating this data are:
- Prices are up: not a shocker. It’s the Summer, people! This is when 75%+ of leases turn over, and prices go up. It’s called seasonality, and it would take a heck of a perfect storm to shift the dynamics of this seasonality considering that rental properties make up over 65% of the market.
- Concessions are down: they’re at their lowest point of the year, with free months’ rent being offered primarily in new buildings looking to move their inventory, and no fee apartments becoming a rarity.
- Inventory is down: the reports differ on this point, but we are siding with the observation that inventory is down, WAY down. The idea behind this is that last year was concession-driven. The economy was floundering, hiring was minimal and prices were very negotiable. What we lacked in new-hires and students coming into the city, we made up for in volume from intra-borough renters. Anyone who could have moved for a great deal did, and now they’re staying put, even paying a few hundred dollars more to renew their leases. This means fewer apartments to go around for this year’s hunters.
Normally, we’d advise renters to wait until September or later for additional inventory and more favorable pricing, but we’re seeing no signals that this inventory is coming NOR that landlords will come back to the negotiating table by then. If you’re in the market, don’t dillydally too long in choosing a place … there are likely 3 other tenants in line to take that apartment if you’re not ready to do so.
