New York City Apartment Leases Tumble While Renters Stay Put
- Coronavirus halts in-person showings, makes moving difficult
- Some rents in Manhattan, Brooklyn still set records in March
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
New York apartment leases plunged last month as coronavirus stay-at-home orders kept the city’s renters from moving.
In Manhattan, new agreements fell 38% in March from a year earlier, the second-biggest decline in 11 years of record-keeping by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. In Brooklyn and Queens, signings were down 46% and 34%, respectively, the firms said in a report Thursday.