Here's Why NYC's Apartment Hunt Is So Bad Right Now

NEW YORK CITY — Apartments going on and off the market in a flash. Stressful nights of scrolling listings. Lines stretching around the block.

Prospective renters across New York City recently have found themselves in a desperate search for apartments.

Even Nancy Wu, an economist who works for StreetEasy, found herself scrambling to find an apartment as she planned to move back to the city from Los Angeles. She eventually decided to shell out for a hotel to wait out the rush after finding a weeks-long stay would be cheaper than an apartment in this market.

“That’s how crazy rents are right now,” she said.

Tenants appeared to hold all the power in New York City's rental market just a few months ago.

Rents hit record lows and inventory hit highs as the coronavirus pandemic's effects continued to ripple through the city.

But now it's a much different picture — the Big Apple surpassed San Francisco as the nation's most expensive place to rent, median apartment prices in Manhattan rebounded back to $3,000 and prospective renters have seen once-generous concessions and selections all-but disappear.

Wu said two factors are driving the changes and creating what feels like a crunch for apartments.

First, renters are returning to the city after a pandemic exodus, Wu said. Their return coincided with the city's traditional rush of leases ending in late summer, she said.

Together, this changed the city's rental market significantly from late June to July.

"Right now, we are seeing quite high demand from renters,” she said.

Rents are growing across the city because demand for apartments is matching inventory, Wu said.

A recent StreetEasy study she conducted found Manhattan's inventory is disappearing fast, which helped drive up the typical rent to $3,000. The same study found rental discounts dried up in Brooklyn.

But Wu said despite the rapid change, that there's still quite a lot of apartments on the market. She suggested renters consider Brooklyn and Queens.

Allia Mohamed, co-founder & CEO of openigloo, said the seeming shortage of rentals could fall more to "optics" than reality.

Her app openigloo allows renters to anonymously rate landlords and assess apartments — and she recommends that prospective renters consider contacting places directly.

"Sort of circumnavigating some of the other rental platforms or advertisements and just calling the leasing office directly," she said. "A lot of these landlords have their own teams where they will show you vacancies that might not necessarily be advertised online."

The East Village, Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Upper West Side and East Williamsburg are the top-searched neighborhoods on openigloo in the past 30 days, according to data provided by app.

Mohamed said renters also appear less interested in living arrangements with several roommates. About 40 percent of searches on openigloo and for studios and one-bedroom apartments.