The rent is too damn high — and, last month, it got even higher.
The median rental price in Manhattan has topped $4,150 for the first time in Big Apple history, according to a jaw-dropping — and bank-busting — March market report compiled by real-estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel.
Specifically, the study tallied a median rental price of $4,175 per month, which alone would set city tenants back $50,100 per year. This also means that the average New Yorker would need to earn a salary of at least $160,000 annually to get by — as well as be approved by a landlord with the “40 times rent rule” in mind.
Meanwhile, the average rental price hit a comparatively higher, and even more gut-wrenching, $5,115 per month.
Median rent, largely known as a more reliable way of tracking prices, is the mid-point value of total samples. The average is the sum of all rents divided by the number of samples.
This all comes nearly a year and a half after city rental prices, which plummeted to record lows in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, began to rise in a dizzying manner. At the time of much lower rents, a number of city residents who stayed in town took advantage of moving into much larger units for the same price they had previously paid — or for even less.
Then, when their leases renewed beginning in late 2021, they faced massive — and often unaffordable — price hikes, which forced them to move again.
Around that time, the local rental market began its rebound — fueled at that time by locals returning to New York from their pandemic hidey-holes, with schools and, eventually, offices reopening.
Several other factors also contributed to the exorbitant rental market, including rising mortgage rates, peak leasing season and the Housing Stability Tenant Protection Act initiated in 2019 — which put into motion new protections against tenant evictions.
Last May, Manhattan’s median rent figure surpassed $4,000 for the first time. Last July, the average broke $5,000 for the first time ever. By August, the numbers only got higher, creating real headaches for house hunters who faced bidding wars for leases that brought their budgets even higher — if they could even get an apartment to visit at times of low inventory.
Last month, for a Manhattan studio, the median rental price was $3,190 per month. And for a one-bedroom, the median rental hit $4,150 per month.
“New York City is entering its primary leasing season, so it is reasonable to expect additional upward price pressure before the market seasonally peaks in August,” Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, who authored the report, told The Post.
Brooklyn has slightly better prices, with a median rental price of $3,493 per month. And the median in prime Northwest Queens, home to popular Astoria, was $3,300 per month.
The report does not include The Bronx or Staten Island in its tallies.
These high prices also take into account low demand for mortgages amid ongoing high interest rates — which currently stand at 6.94% for a 30-year fixed rate.
This market report comes as it was revealed that more than 10,000 New Yorkers fled the state for Florida so far in 2023, extending an ongoing exodus to the Sunshine State.
Additionally, a recent poll found that nearly a third of New Yorkers want to move out due to housing costs and other factors, such as crime and poor schools.