Daniela Mora, a stand-up comedian and content creator, found nothing to laugh about when she began her hunt for a one-bedroom rental in Manhattan this year.
In order to find a new lease by June 1, Mora’s May consisted of scouring StreetEasy at all hours of the night and spending her spare time schlepping across the city to open houses.
“The minute [brokers] text you, you have to fly over to Queens or wherever, trying to be the first person in this unit,” Mora, 26, told The Post. “It’s kind of like a second full-time job.”
Under pressure to pursue every possible lead, Mora found herself pushing back professional meetings, canceling workout classes and arriving late to comedy shows. She toured close to 25 apartments, applied to two and got into a bidding war — yes, a bidding war — over one.
And Mora’s not alone. New Yorkers on the hunt for a new lease this summer are battling more than just heat waves. Historically high rents, low vacancy rates and agonizing bidding wars — a phenomenon typically reserved for home purchases — define this year’s red-hot summer rental market.
Rent in Manhattan reached an all-time high in June, according to a new report from appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman. The record-setting prices started unseasonably early this year, as far back as February, and have climbed nearly every month since. The median rent for a Manhattan one-bedroom in June was a record-breaking $4,625, and new lease signings well outpaced inventory.
What’s more, 25% of Manhattan tenants ultimately paid above the landlord’s list price, Miller said, a record share of bidding wars for June. Northwestern Queens, home to prime Astoria, nearly matched Manhattan at 24%. Brooklyn outpaced both with a whopping 31.9% of tenants — nearly one in three — facing bidding wars.
New York City’s intense summer housing market is nothing new, but this year is special.
Skittish would-be homebuyers, wary of stubbornly high mortgage rates and ongoing economic uncertainty, are, in part, a large driver of the current trends, Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, told The Post.
“I would expect more records being set at least in one of the next two months, but probably both,” Miller said.
Additionally, the passage of the city’s FARE Act in June led to an uncomfortable spike in rents, The Post reported, as landlords responded to the new ban on broker fees by building the cost into rents.
“New Yorkers are unfortunately discovering the negative consequences of the FARE Act in real time,” Brian Hourigan, the managing director of BOND New York, told The Post.
Some landlords went so far as to pull their listings from public platforms like StreetEasy in June. The increase in off-market listings depleted inventory and ratcheted up bidding wars in an already tight market.
Manhattan rental inventory fell by 12.4% from May to June, according to Miller Samuel. Miller linked the trend to landlords adjusting to the new legislation.
Even before the FARE Act took effect, inventory constraints cost renter Abby Paradise thousands.
The 24-year-old Paradise and her roommate, desiring an upgrade from their Lower East Side pad, had until the end of May to find a new home. The pair quickly learned that finding an affordable two-bedroom in Manhattan can be a battle, especially in the summertime when newly minted graduates move into town to start their new chapters.
“We could not find anything for the life of us,” Paradise, who works in jewelry sales, told The Post.
For weeks, Paradise spent her after hours and weekends going on apartment tours. She estimates she attended at least 30 tours. Plans were canceled and weekend trips were postponed to accommodate the 15 to 20 hours a week Paradise dedicated to the search.
Even with a budget of $4,600, she and her roommate lost out on two different bidding wars, despite offering up a combined $200 above asking price on both.
The pair split to hunt for one-bedrooms instead, but the decision came too late for Paradise. She had to extend her Lower East Side lease and pay a month of two-bedroom rent on her own. The delay cost her an extra $2,000 on top of her typical rent — even though she only stayed half the month.
Paradise ultimately found her dream apartment on the Upper East Side — an off-market, rent-stabilized one-bedroom — only after hiring a broker, Olivia Rispoli of BOND, and agreeing to sign for the apartment while it was under a complete renovation. The walls still needed to be painted, and new appliances in the bathroom and the kitchen still needed to be installed.
Paradise’s flexibility paid off.
“Honestly, I really didn’t expect to have an apartment that I was obsessed with so soon in my early 20s,” Paradise said. “But it has amazing lighting, an enormous living room and having a dishwasher is awesome.”
Mora only found her perfect match in Kips Bay after her newly hired broker, Kunal Khemlani of Corcoran, urged her to bid $100 over the asking rent. She had just lost out on another apartment to a wealthier, pet-less applicant.
“I was very unwell about that,” Mora said. “But my mindset is that time is money, and I was spending full days looking, researching and applying.”
She got the apartment. Luckily, the hard-won lease was a “love and first sight” situation.
“I literally shook the other agent’s hand [when we toured] and said ‘I’m gonna live here,’” Mora said.
