Third Of NYC Listings Once Belonged To Priced-Out Tenants: Study

NEW YORK CITY — A third of New York City rentals on the market once belonged to tenants who were priced out of their homes, a new study contends.

A StreetEasy study released Tuesday found at least 34 percent of New York City's listed apartments had discounted leases during the pandemic, but are now on the market at historically high new prices.

StreetEasy economist Kenny Lee explained that landlords have begun amping up prices in a mass wave — with asking rents jumping about 20 percent citywide — and left tenants of formerly-discounted homes with a tough decision to make.

“Either pay painfully higher annual rent," Lee said, "or...[face] an incredibly hot market in terms of options.”

The current situation stands in pointed contrast to the COVID-19 pandemic's early days, many New Yorkers fled the city and landlords lowered rents to entice new tenants, Lee said.

Those landlords are now trying to earn back the rent they weren't paid then, the study contends.

"Landlords have been raising rents more aggressively on units they leased during the pandemic in effort to recoup the earnings they lost," the study states.

The analysis breaks down rent increases by borough, and found 44 percent of apartment inventory in Manhattan came from tenants leaving no-longer-discounted apartments.

The sky-high prices in Manhattan — which were the most expensive in the city —prompted many renters to flee to Brooklyn and Queens, Lee said.

But rent in Brooklyn and Queens now costs 60 percent and 45 percent, respectively, of a New Yorkers' typical monthly household income, according to the StreetEasy analysis.

Lee, who noted renters should typically pay 30 percent of their income in rent, said those borough rents represent "really staggering numbers.”

StreetEasy released its study Tuesday, one day before the Legal Aid Society made its own alarming announcement about the growing number of evictions in New York City.

City data show the number of evictions tripled from 104 in January to 315 executed in June, making a total of 1,313 evictions for 2022.

The growing number of evictions prompted attorneys with The Legal Aid Society to press lawmakers Tuesday to pass a “Good Cause Eviction” bill that would provide additional protections, especially against massive rent hikes, for tenants in unregulated apartments.

“New York’s eviction machine is ramping up," said Judith Goldiner, attorney-in-charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit. “This is indeed a crisis, especially with rent amounts reaching unprecedented levels."

Those unprecedented rents make New York City the most expensive in the nation, with average rents in Manhattan cracking $5,000 for the first time.

Lee, the StreetEasy economist, doesn't foresee New York City rents dropping soon.

New York City rents will likely remain high until the fall or winter because of the historically low number of apartments on the market, Lee said.

“I think the landlords are feeling pretty confident that they can fill out their vacancies,” he said. "Renters are really faced with tough choices.”

Read the full StreetEasy study here.