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Manhattan Apartment Lease Numbers Tumble

It’s not just co-ops and condos that New Yorkers are shunning these days. The number of Manhattan apartment leases signed is also tumbling–down 58.3% in the second quarter, according to an inaugural report on the borough’s rental market released Thursday. Despite the drastic drop in rentals for the quarter as a whole, leasing activity picked up steam toward the end of the period. In fact, leases signed in June accounted for nearly half–46.3%–of the quarterly total.

Meanwhile, apartment rents continued to drop last quarter. Average per-square-foot rents fell 17.5% compared with the same quarter of 2008, hitting $44.16, the report said. Nonetheless, the average rent paid in the quarter rose by 0.9% to $3,839 as more people opted for larger units.

With fewer leases being signed and more supply flooding onto the market, the inventory of apartments rose 28.8% to 7,290 from the same time last year. As a consequence, the average time that apartments remain on the market nearly doubled from year-ago levels–hitting 83 days. Part of the increase in inventory was also attributed to more owners choosing to rent their apartments because they could not get the sale price they wanted.

Source: Manhattan Apartment Rentals, Rents Drops Steeply, Amanda Fung, Crain’s New York Business, 7/9/09

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