Now that we've all had a long weekend to digest the second quarter sales numbers, it's rental market report time. And any people you see smiling today are probably landlords, because according to the reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman and Citi Habitats, those rumors of a rebounding Manhattan rental market do have some truth to them. Elliman's report, from market oracle Jonathan Miller, has average and median rents down by a little more than 3 percent from both last year and the second quarter. (Rental price per square foot is higher by 12 percent year-over-year because smaller apartments were rented in Q2.) But the number of rentals rose by 141.2 percent year over year, available inventory fell, apartments spent fewer days on the market, and landlords continued to drop concessions back to pre-apocalypseLehman levels.
Citi Habitats also weighs in today with a mid-year Manhattan rental market report that shows some of the same patterns. Though Citi Habitats says prices are up for all apartment sizes, the brokerage's stats on declining inventory agree with Elliman's. Citi Habitats also notes that the vacancy rate dropped to 0.9 percent in June, down from a high of 2.46 percent in February. And while 47 percent of Citi Habitats' listings involved concessions like a landlord-paid broker's fee or free month's rent in January, only 28 percent of listings included an incentive as of last month.
Citi Habitats has even decided it's time to bring back some pre-Lehman language, urging prospective renters to "act quickly" when they see apartments they like and trumpeting this as a great time for new rental projects to hit the market. Of course, summer is also a traditionally busy season. Will these patterns hold once the weather cools?
· Market Reports [Elliman]
· Market Reports [Citi Habitats]
· Rental Market Reports coverage [Curbed]
A roundup of other coverage of today's reports:
· Manhattan Rents on the Rise [WSJ]
· Residential rental activity in 2Q nears pre-Lehman levels [Real Deal]
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