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Someone forgot to tell the owners of Manhattan that New Yorkers all moved to Florida.
In January, the median apartment rental price in manhattan increased 15% to $4,097 over the same period last year. And the average rent jumped more than 13% to $5,142, according to a report by real estate firm Douglass Elliman and consulting firm Miller Samuel. For anyone keeping score, that’s more than double what you’d pay in Miami.
You come back now, you hear
At the height of the pandemic, NYC saw an exodus as office jobs were remote and employees no longer had to factor a manageable commute into their daily schedules. According to a Cornell analysis by the end of 2020, 336,000 New Yorkers – about 4% of the city’s population – had migrated to less populated places with yards, walkways and birds other than pigeons. Manhattan saw the biggest drop with nearly 120,000 residents leaving the island.
But even with a recent wave of layoffs in the tech sector and on Wall Street, the local job market is strong. In a report last summer, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that NYC’s employment rate growth was 5.3%, higher than the national average of 4%. Manhattan is open for business again and workers are heading back to the office, but now they need a place to live, and it’s going to be a little harder to find if you know what we’re saying? :
- During the peak of COVID, Manhattan’s vacancy rate hit a astonishing 12% spike, but by last October it had fallen back to just over 2%. So not only are prices going up, but there are fewer new listings.
- Federal guidelines state that people should spend 30% of their income on rent and utilities, lest they become burdened with rent. If you meet this standard, your household would need to earn more than $163,000 a year to afford a median-priced apartment in Manhattan. But according to US census datathe median household income in Manhattan is only $70,600, not even halfway there.
Jess Levine, a top broker at Douglass Elliman who oversees more than 200 private investor apartments, said rents are expected to level off and stabilize in the coming months. “The rental bidding wars have generally eased compared to last summer,” she told the Daily Upside. “We are well above pre-covid rental prices. Price is the key to a successful rental in this market.
Down in Kokomo: As Miami Dolphins owner and New York real estate mogul, billionaire Stephen Ross knows a thing or two about both cities. In an interview with Bloomberg this week, he said: “People are looking for the North East and moving for jobs – not for retirement – and companies are looking for (offices). These are tax issues, and there are security issues. There is only the ease of living. Over the past two years, companies like Goldman Sachs, Blackstone and Point72 have expanded to offices in the Sunshine State. Florida is starting to look less like God’s waiting room and more like Wall Street’s boardroom. And the rent is much cheaper too.