[New, Improved, Expanded] 9-2012 Manhattan/Brooklyn Rental Report

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Saturday, October 20, 2012, 3:00 PM

We created and published a new report on the Manhattan rental market for 9-2012.  This is part of an evolving market report series I’ve been writing for Douglas Elliman since 1994.

New Features

-Includes both Manhattan and Brooklyn (North/Northwest)
-Monthly release.
-Vacancy Rates (Manhattan only)
-Breakdown of the four Manhattan regions by number of bedrooms
-We’ve added a “Super-Luxury” rental category for the top 5% of Manhattan.

-Both reports are a work in progress – we’ll continue to lavish attention on new features over the coming months.

Key Points

-Rental market remains tight as credit keeps some out of purchase market and supply isn’t elastic enough to meet demand.
-Strong employment growth is fueling rental market, which responds more quickly to job gains.

MANHATTAN

• Prices continued to rise, up 10.2% based on face rent and 8% based on net effective rent year-over-year.
  
• Only 2% of listings had a landlord concession, down from 8.6% last year.
  
• Vacancy rate fell to 1.85% from 2.62% in year ago quarter, consistent with rising rents. Uptown with lowest rate, West Side with highest rate.
  
• New rentals up 54.5% from the prior year suggesting market resistance at time of lease renewal.
  
• Listing inventory slipped 2.6% from year ago levels.
  
• Doorman prices up as non-doorman prices remained stable.
  

BROOKLYN
[North, Northwest Regions]

• Prices slipped 2.1% below year ago levels but remain elevated.
  
• New rentals up 6.5% over last year’s levels.
  
• Days on market at third fast monthly rate in nearly 5 years.
  
• 1-Bedrooms showed largest median sales price gain at 10.5% YOY.
  

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

…Two significant drivers of rental demand over the past year have been the tight lending conditions and the improving local economy, namely employment levels. Perhaps the most consequential factor to date has been the tight mortgage underwriting standards. Banks remain risk-adverse, and lending standards have yet to ease since the fall of Lehman Brothers. This has held many would-be buyers in the rental market, especially with mortgage rates continuing to fall and reaching record-low levels throughout most of 2012. However, falling mortgage rates have made lenders even more adverse to risk. This lower tenant mobility has tightened the conditions of the rental market, laying the pressure on rents…

You can build your own custom data tables on the Manhattan rental market using quarterly data – our new monthly format will be available online shortly and will be phasing in monthly charts to our rental chart gallery soon.

The Elliman Report: 9-2012 Manhattan Rentals [Miller Samuel]
The Elliman Report: 9-2012 Manhattan Rentals [Prudential Douglas Elliman]