“Can I put down the deposit right now?!” She’s standing in front of me, a nice person, but now she’s a stressed-out renter. It’s June 2022, and this has become the normal behavior for people wanting apartments: desperate, because every apartment they want is seemingly gone before they show up to view it.
I’m in apartment 3L, on the top floor of **2 Stanhope, in Bushwick, working to rent this apartment for the third time in five years. In 2017 and 2019 we rented it for $2400 (landlord paid the fee both times).
But this year, we’ve entered into some sort of untouched level of the rental market no one ever thought possible. The price of this apartment is now $3000, with the tenant paying the broker fee, and it will rent today, by the person standing in front of me; it’s been listed for twenty hours.
How did we get here?
I’ll sum it up for you, based on my experience of renting apartments in New York City since 2017:
-
In 2020, there was an exodus of renters as people left the city during the Pandemic.
-
Many returned in 2021, or those who were already in NYC took advantage of lower prices to find a better deal on an apartment.
-
People generally don’t want to move after one year. They want to settle down for at least two years.
-
In 2022, people were still moving — but there were just less apartments available, because so many had rented in 2021. I don’t think it was scientific. I think it was just human nature.
-
Here’s a little personal evidence. I rented 85 apartments in 2021, and only 70 in 2022. I didn’t lose any landlord clients. In fact, I only gained new landlords to work with, but I rented fifteen less apartments, because the landlords I work with just had less to give me. Everything had been rented in 2021.
All of this equals one crazy price surge. But things haven’t been the same in the beginning of 2023.
This month, January, I have too many apartments that have not rented — prices are just a little too high. 2022 is over — there’s a recession coming and it’s affecting the rental market, too. Prices need to drop on most apartments $100-$200 (or more — call me for an estimate).
But I’ll fondly remember 2022 as the year I showed each apartment once or twice and they rented immediately. The rental market in every year since the beginning of the pandemic has been some new, unique ride. 2023 will have its own, weird narrative, too.
Are you a property owner or landlord that wants to sell their asset or needs to rent an apartment in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.