Douglas Elliman JUST published their Manhattan/Brooklyn rental report. This monthly report is part of an evolving market report series I’ve been writing for Douglas Elliman since 1994. We discontinued the quarterly rental report series but still present the information in our aggregate database.

MANHATTAN

– Improving economy and tight credit keeping pressure on rental prices.
– Median rent continued to rise, was 3.5% above year ago levels.
– Nearly 2 years since rents began to rise again, averaging a 5% annualized pace since.
– New rentals fell as less “tenant churn” reflected more agreement between landlord and tenants at lease renewal.
– Vacancy rate down sharply to 1.60% from year ago rate of 2.51%.
– Only 4.4% of rental activity had some form of landlord concession.

BROOKLYN[North, Northwest Regions]

– Median rental price declined 3% YoY, second consecutive month of weaker rental prices from March peak.
– Despite rental rate volatility, rents trending upward since late 2010, using 90-day moving average.
– Days on market showed nominal 2 day increase to 44 days from a year ago.
– Number of new rentals jumped 23.5% after trending lower since beginning of year.
– Studio and 1-bedroom rental market share fell 2.2% as low mortgage rates pulled tenants into sales market.
– After 2 years of growth, annual pace of rental price growth show some signs of easing.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

MANHATTAN The year-overyear increase in median monthly rents have pressed higher since July 2011, averaging a 5% annual pace. The Manhattan median monthly rent was $3,200, up 3.5% from the same period last year. Average rent expanded at a similar pace, rising 3.2% to $3,951, just shy of the $4,000 threshold and the 7th highest monthly level in 60 months. The occurrence of rental concessions remained limited, with only 4.4% of all new rentals having some form applied. When concessions were used, they were the equivalent of 1.2 months rent…

BROOKLYN The Brooklyn median rent slipped 3% to $2,579 from the same period last year. After reaching a year-to-date 2013 peak rate increase of 11.3% in March and a 1% rate increase in April, the rate decreased in May to the lowest level of the year. Rental price growth has remained volatile monthto- month, but when using a 90-day moving average, rent growth has been maintained since late 2010…

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The Elliman Report: 5-2013 Manhattan/Brooklyn Rentals [Miller Samuel] The Elliman Report: 5-2013 Manhattan/Brooklyn Rentals [Douglas Elliman] Miller Samuel Aggregate Database [Miller Samuel] Chart Gallery (Brooklyn Monthly) [Miller Samuel] Chart Gallery (Manhattan Monthly) [Miller Samuel] Chart Gallery (Manhattan Quarterly) [Miller Samuel]