Here's How Much Harlem Rent Prices Fell In 2020

HARLEM, NY — Renters looking to move to Harlem will pay up to 10 percent less in parts of the neighborhood than they would have last year thanks to plummeting prices amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new study found.

Each part of the neighborhood saw its median rent price drop between November 2019 and 2020, according to the StreetEasy's November 2020 Market Reports, which found that rents across New York City have fallen more this year than they did during the Great Recession.

Here is the breakdown by each part of Harlem included in the report:

• Central Harlem: 5.7 percent drop ($2,390 median asking rent in Nov. 2020)
• East Harlem: 9.9 percent drop ($2,150 median asking rent)
• Hamilton Heights: 7.3 percent drop ($2,270 median asking rent)
• West Harlem: 8 percent drop ($2,300 median asking rent)

Across Manhattan, rents collectively dropped by 12.7 percent between the two years — the most of any borough. In 2008, Manhattan rents fell by about 10 percent.

"We expected the rental market to match the weakness seen during the Great Recession, but the fact that the market has surpassed that level in less than one year shows how serious the crisis caused by the pandemic has been," StreetEasy Economist Nancy Wu said in the report.

In Manhattan, the most widespread rent price drops occurred in Midtown, where nearly one in three landlords lowered their prices. The biggest single drop of any neighborhood, though, was in SoHo, which had an astonishing 37.8 percent decline in prices last month compared to November 2019.

Wu predicted that rents will remain low and vacant units will continue to abound until the coronavirus vaccine becomes more widely available.

Meanwhile, some outer-borough neighborhoods did not see the same drops that occurred in Manhattan, despite being some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods by the coronavirus. In North Corona, Queens, for example, median rents rose this year by nearly 24 percent.

Read the full StreetEasy report here.

Anna Quinn contributed to this report.