NYC’s outer boroughs see increasing demand: Report

According to new findings published in Realtor.com’s August report on New York City rentals, demand — and rents — are on the rise for New York City outer borough apartments. 

The demand, the report found, was significantly, and perhaps ironically, correlated with the same desire for affordability, which has demand and rent for pricier Manhattan pads decreasing.  

Queens saw the fastest annual rental growth last month, with median rent clocking in at $3,427 a month, 11.1% higher than it was at the same time in 2023 — and 38.3%, or $949 higher, than what it was five years ago. 

In The Bronx, the median rent this August was found to be $3,163 a month, up 7.8% from last year and a whopping 56% more than in 2019. 

Brooklyn saw the least rental growth. Although its median monthly asking rent of $3,790 was by far the highest of these three boroughs, it was only a 5.1% increase from last year’s tally. 

(Data for Staten Island, the report noted, is currently under review.) 

Meanwhile, Manhattan’s median asking rent in August was $4,472, a 2.2% decrease from what it was last year and a 7.8% decrease ($379) from what it was five years ago, which was notably a record-breaking, pre-pandemic peak that is the highest point ever-recorded in Realtor.com’s data history. 

In addition to the borough trends, the report also made note of a trend in apartment sizes, namely that the median asking rent for studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms has gone up by 4.2% from August 2023 — while rent for units with three or more bedrooms has declined by 5% compared to last year.

Last month thus marked the 14th consecutive month that Manhattan has recorded annual rental declines, and “suggests a continued dip in demand in the most expensive borough, possibly reflecting an ongoing trend of workers opting for commutes and taking advantage of flexible work arrangements to secure more affordable housing,” the report noted.