More N.Y.C. Rentals Are Available. But Can You Afford One?

The number of available rentals in New York City grew to 30,314 in April, up nearly 5 percent since last April. That’s good news for prospective renters, but it’s still way down from the 41,123 that were available in April 2019 — and not nearly enough to rectify a shortage that has been decades in the making, according to a new report from StreetEasy.

Much of the annual increase was due to new development along the waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens, much of which has been transformed over the past decade from aging industrial infrastructure to gleaming residential towers.

Among the boroughs, Queens led in annual rental inventory growth with a 9.6 percent increase, to 4,046 listings (1,377 of them were in Astoria, a 47 percent rise for the neighborhood). Brooklyn followed with an 8.7 percent increase, to 9,838 rentals (Greenpoint led its neighborhoods with a 47 percent rise, representing 507 units). Manhattan’s listings hardly increased at all, up less than 1 percent, to 4,400.

Mott Haven, in the Bronx, led all neighborhoods with an 85 percent increase in inventory, though that represents only 387 apartments of 921 currently available in the borough. The median asking rent there was $3,050. While units reserved for low- and middle-income renters are included in many Mott Haven buildings and elsewhere, they are a minority.

The shortage of available apartments has helped push the city’s median asking rent up to $3,700, the highest it’s been since last September. But the pace of growth has slowed: From April 2022 to April 2023, asking rents rose 14 percent (the most of any market nationally), while this April the year-over-year increase was only 1.7 percent.

Still, the standard qualifying formula for renters requires an annual household income of 40 times the monthly rent. For a unit at New York’s median asking rent of $3,700, a renter would need an income of $148,000 a year. That’s nearly double the city’s median annual household income of about $77,000.

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