More pain for NYC renters as prices surge again — and there’s no relief in sight

New York City’s rental rat race shows no signs of slowing down.

Record-high rents and widespread bidding wars have come to define the city’s rental market in 2025, and July was no exception. Median rent in Manhattan broke yet another record last month, and temperatures aren’t much cooler across the East River.

The data, published monthly by appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman, points to a fiercely competitive market. 

Median rent in Manhattan reached $4,700 in July, according to the report, charting a 9.3% increase from a year earlier. This is the second-biggest annual jump since these monthly reports began in 2008, Bloomberg reported.

The market share of leases signed after bidding wars also reached an all-time high of 28.9%, continuing a months-long competitive streak that began unseasonably early this year. The impacts of the FARE Act, passed in June to prevent landlords from saddling tenants with broker fees, resulted in temporarily tightened inventory and rents hikes that are still reverberating through the market. 

Sweltering market temperatures in late summer are par for the course. This is the season of fresh-faced graduates flooding the city and families moving to new neighborhoods before the school year starts. 

Regardless of the usual summer scramble, however, the city’s renter pool is feeling unusually crowded. 

Experts including Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, attribute the problem, in part, to a backlog of would-be homebuyers. These reluctant renters are clinging to their leases a little longer as they wait for lower mortgage rates, resulting in a prolonged loss of elbow room in the market.

Manhattan’s luxury renters are getting off comparatively easy — the median rent for a luxury unit rose just 5% year-over-year, reaching $10,500 in July. Rent for the bottom 30% of the market, on the other hand, rose 14.3% annually, up to $3,200. 

Miller told Bloomberg that renters who can afford the priciest pads can more likely afford to buy in cash, unencumbered by pesky mortgages.  

It’s like shopping for flights around the holidays. Economy ticket prices soar and your only choice is by the lavatory unless you pay a fat fee, while first-class buyers enjoy ample choice — some of the competition decided to fly private, instead.

Now is a great time for cash-rich renters to make the leap — more than half of US homes sold in May went for less than their asking price. 

The July apartment hunt in Brooklyn and Northwest Queens was hardly easier than in Manhattan. Median rent in Brooklyn increased 6.9% annually, up to $3,850, marking the borough’s second-highest level on record. Northwest Queens saw a dramatic 8.7% jump to $3,750 and even logged rates of bidding wars nearly equal to that of Manhattan. 

It’s likely that August — which historically ties with July as the city’s hottest rental market — will see similarly historic numbers.