New York City Apartment Rents Reach Record Highs: Report – Commercial Observer
New York City just keeps getting harder to afford as monthly rents hit a record high during the third quarter of 2026, new data shows.
The median asking rent was $3,785 per month, a 4.5 percent year-over-year rise during the quarter, according to the latest report from Realtor.com. This is the highest rent recorded since Realtor.com began collecting rent data in 2019.
Monthly rent in New York City is $816, or 27.5 percent, above its pre-pandemic level, the data shows. Across four of the city’s five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens — the median asking rent for studios to two-bedrooms grew by 7.1 percent year-over-year during the third quarter to $3,662. Rent for units with three bedrooms or more increased 2.9 annually to $5,089. (The data did not track Staten Island.)
“New York City renters are facing a difficult affordability equation: Rents are rising, especially for the smaller homes many renters compete for, while the cost of buying remains dramatically higher,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “A modest decline in home prices brought some relief to the monthly cost of buying in the third quarter, but mortgage rates above 7 percent can quickly erase that progress. For renters hoping to save for a down payment, the squeeze is coming from both directions.”
It is expected that the Federal Reserve will again raise interest rates at its next meeting in December, and yields on the 10-Year Treasury continues to flirt with years-long highs. As a consequence, the average 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage shot above 7 percent in September.
Manhattan led the way with the highest year-over-year rent increase for the third quarter. The median Manhattan rent grew 8.3 percent to $5,375 per month. Rent in Brooklyn grew 4.9 percent to $4,197, rent in Queens increased 3.9 percent to $3,774, and rent in the Bronx increased 2.7 percent to $3,233.
“New York City’s rent growth is broad-based, but the sharpest increase is in the smaller-unit segment, where affordability-minded renters are competing for limited options,” Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in the statement. “At the same time, the cost of buying a typical home is nearly three times the cost of renting, and a mortgage rate above 7 percent would push that monthly cost even higher.”
Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.
