{"id":59161,"date":"2023-09-10T07:21:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T11:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/my-nyc-apartment-hunt-is-brutal-im-rethinking\/"},"modified":"2023-09-10T07:21:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T11:21:08","slug":"my-nyc-apartment-hunt-is-brutal-im-rethinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=59161","title":{"rendered":"My NYC Apartment Hunt Is Brutal. I’m Rethinking."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Shaina Mishkin New York City Apartment Rental Sentiment Index fell last month to a level just barely off its record low. Yes, the index has its flaws\u2014it is, for example, something I just made up. But actual data suggest I\u2019m not imagining it: The Big
\n Apple
\n apartment rental landscape was brutal this summer.<\/p>\n

\n

As the Shaina Mishkin for whom the index is named, allow me to share some pertinent information: You will never meet someone who loves to move more than I do. Every part of the process is a thrill: visiting new buildings, chatting with brokers, even collecting my paperwork and sending in my application. All of that is to say, you know there\u2019s a problem if New York City\u2019s most bullish mover\u2014not to mention a real estate reporter\u2014is reconsidering her apartment hunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems like nobody had a good time navigating the New York rental market this summer. My search brought me to open houses with lines out the front door, orchestrated by brokers fielding even more tour requests for the same apartment. Searching in August felt notably difficult, although data show the market was even tighter last year. That\u2019s not to mention the cost of renting, which is up about 30% citywide since March 2020, according to median asking rent data from StreetEasy, a New York City-centric rental website. \u00a0<\/p>\n

As it turns out, it isn\u2019t just me: \u201cThis year has been very competitive for renters in New York City,\u201d says Kenny Lee, an economist at StreetEasy. Lee says there were over 65% more inquiries per listing from May to July this summer than during the summer before the pandemic, meaning I\u2019m not the only person who feverishly sent requests for tours this summer.<\/p>\n

Demand has overwhelmed the scant supply of apartments for rent, Lee explains. Rental inventory has been lower than 2019 levels for two straight years, the website\u2019s data show.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The explanations for New York City\u2019s competitive rental landscape are myriad and complex. On the supply side, new multifamily units are being built, <\/strong>but the inventory they add is a drop in the bucket compared with other metros,
\n CoStar
\n data show. \u00a0<\/strong>Short-term rentals have taken some of the blame, as have rent regulation measures and \u201cwarehousing,\u201d meaning landlords keep units empty. StreetEasy data show there\u2019s more demand than supply across all price points, with the lowest-priced third of the market seeing the greatest increase in requests.<\/p>\n

A host of factors could be fueling demand. New York City\u2019s unemployment rate is below its long-term average, data show, keeping demand for rentals solid. High mortgage rates and competition to buy homes in the \u2018burbs could keep some in rentals they would otherwise vacate\u2014as could lingering recession worries or fear about finding a new unit worth the cost. A white paper published by the Economic Innovation Group in April posited that rent growth during the pandemic remained strong in dense but population-losing areas in part because remote-working roommates went their separate ways, creating new households in the process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All these partial explanations aside, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if some of the competition is a sign that people are moving to New York City from other parts of the country. After all, they told me as much: At the many tours and open houses I\u2019ve been to in the past month, I\u2019ve met folks moving from Florida or the west coast about as frequently as I\u2019ve met people moving from elsewhere in the neighborhood or another borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a city that notoriously shed 5.3% of its population after it was hit hard by Covid-19, that struck me as notable. People continued to move to New York City from overseas during the pandemic, but those gains weren\u2019t enough to offset the flood of residents leaving for other domestic destinations, census data show. With vaccines freely available and the Covid-19 State of Emergency in the rearview mirror, is the city attracting more new residents from other metros?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about six months too soon to check in on 2023 population trends using census data, so I reached out to a few moving companies to see if I was onto something. Piece of Cake, a New York-based moving and storage company, told me that it facilitated 87% more long-distance moves into the city so far this year than during the same period in 2022.\u00a0Some of that increase is due to the company\u2019s growth, founder Voyo Popovic told Barron\u2019s<\/em>\u2014but not all of it. Moves out still outnumber moves in, the company said, but the gap has narrowed. <\/p>\n

There were roughly four-times as many outgoing moves from the city as incoming this year, down from eight-times as many last year, according to Piece of Cake. Excluding Connecticut and New Jersey, southern Florida is both the top destination for outgoing New Yorkers and the origin for incoming ones, Piece of Cake says, followed by California, Texas, and Illinois.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether the other 20- and 30-somethings touring Queens apartments are moving from Los Angeles\u00a0<\/strong>or Long Island City, much of the sentiment has been the same. My competition and I, amassed in small crowds in foyers and on sidewalks, commiserate as we await our turn to loop through yet another one-bedroom, describing our ongoing hunts as \u201cdepressing,\u201d \u201cdemoralizing,\u201d and \u201cpretty bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it resonates when Jonathan Miller, the CEO of real estate consulting and appraisal firm Miller Samuel, who compiles the closely watched
\n Douglas Elliman
\n rental market reports, tells me he made headlines earlier this year for calling 2023 the \u201cyear of disappointment.\u201d Such doldrums aren\u2019t limited to the rental market: \u201cHomeowners aren\u2019t going to get their 2021 price, and buyers and renters aren\u2019t going to see a significant improvement in affordability,\u201d he says, recalling his forecast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading indicators suggest improvement is on its way. One side effect of still-high rents is that some owners might consider listing their units, says StreetEasy\u2019s Lee, meaning more options for renters. The website has seen new rental listings increase recently, \u201ca good sign for all the renters in the city,\u201d says Lee, who adds that new listings could slow the pace of rent increases. <\/p>\n

While my slice of the rental market might feel hot, data suggests New York is cooling from its hypercompetitive pace earlier in the pandemic\u2014a time when I wasn\u2019t even thinking of looking. StreetEasy inquiries per listing in August were 37% higher than the same month in 2019 on average\u2014still elevated, yes, but the closest the measure has come to its prepandemic level since mid-2021. <\/p>\n

Miller, the appraiser and consultant, says rents aren\u2019t going down from here\u2014but an increase in listings in July combined with lower leasing activity suggests rent hikes could be topping out. \u201cPeople are reaching their threshold of what they can handle,\u201d Miller says. \u201cIn the fall, [rents] are not going to keep rising; they\u2019re going to move sideways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return of seasonality to the city\u2019s rental market could play a part\u2014as could my own adjustment to the market\u2019s fast pace. While I ended August without a new lease lined up, I\u2019ve come pretty close recently. It\u2019s too early to say, but I think the Shaina Mishkin Rental Sentiment index just might tick back up in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shaina Mishkin New York City Apartment Rental Sentiment Index fell last month to a level just barely off its record low. Yes, the index has its flaws\u2014it is, for example, something I just made up. But actual data suggest I\u2019m not imagining it: The Big Apple apartment rental landscape was brutal this summer. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-59161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"\nMy NYC Apartment Hunt Is Brutal. I'm Rethinking. | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Shaina Mishkin New York City Apartment Rental Sentiment Index fell last month to a level just barely off its record low. 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