Are you a property owner that wants to sell their condo, investment property or needs to rent an apartment or retail space in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.
Do you know a property owner that might need real estate help? Refer me! I provide great and professional real estate services across all five boroughs.
Usually, August is a frenzied time for the NYC rental market, where units rent incredibly easily and for high amounts. Throughout my near-eight year real estate career, the patten has always been the same: August (and July) are the height of the rental market. Prices are high, and apartments rent quickly, before tapering off as the year moves into the fall and winter.
In past Augusts, every unit I listed on StreetEasy rented right away, but this August was different. Each day brought only a faint trickle of renters inquiring about apartments. A low volume isn’t an indication that apartments are about to fly off the shelves. In fact, based on the amount of renters calling or emailing, it seemed like we were in a much slower time of the year, like November – not August.
Colleagues of mine called me expressing similar sentiments. An old friend of mine said he had luxury listings in Long Island City sitting. Another one, specializing in Bushwick, told me that he thought: “everyone [the renters] went on vacation.”
The easiest way to get apartments moved is to drop the price. I think the prices for rentals are going to come down soon – but not by that much.
Still – what is causing the market shift? Why the slow August? Does it somehow have to do with mortgage rates? Or perhaps prices are leveling out – or going down – after they were sky-high following the rush of renters returning to NYC after the height of the Pandemic in 2022.
I’ve written about the return of renters in NYC in 2022 and its affect on the rental market before. To summarize it here: in 2022, with droves of people returning to NYC following an exodus in 2020, prices soared. For example, Bushwick apartments which had never rented for more than $2400 were now getting $3000 or more – an insane number. In 2023, prices were high as well – almost near 2022 levels.
Perhaps this incredible high might have been a bubble. But, again, I’m not saying that the market is about to tank completely. Sometimes a price cut of only $200 is the difference between an apartment sitting for months and it renting in a timely manner. An apartment that I currently have listed in Harlem – a three bedroom for $3750, the same price that the last tenants paid for it in 2022, is currently ice cold, receiving no leads, but it may simply require a drop to $3500ish to get it rented.
Are you a property owner that wants to sell their condo, investment property or needs to rent an apartment or retail space in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.
Do you know a property owner that might need real estate help? Refer me! I provide great and professional real estate services across all five boroughs.