New York City registered record-high rents in the third quarter as renters competed for smaller units in one of the most expensive rental markets in the country.
The median asking rent in the Big Apple was $3,785 per month in the quarter, up by 4.5 percent, or $162, from the same quarter in 2025, according to an Oct. 27 report from Realtor.com. This is the highest level since Realtor.com started tracking the data in the second quarter of 2019.
Since then, the median asking rent has risen by 27.5 percent, or $816 a month, above pre-pandemic levels.
In comparison, Realtor.com’s Oct. 15 report showed that the national median asking rent was $1,694 per month in September—less than half of New York City’s median rent.
“New York City’s rent growth is broad-based, but the sharpest increase is in the smaller-unit segment, where affordability-minded renters are competing for limited options,” Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in the Oct. 27 report.
The report showed that median asking rent in the third quarter climbed 7.1 percent annually to $3,662 per month for studios through two-bedroom apartments, and 2.9 percent to $5,089 for units with three or more bedrooms.
Renters considering homeownership also face an uphill battle, as the report showed that a median-priced home in the third quarter cost $6,952 more per month than renting.
With the median 30-year mortgage rate rising above 7 percent, the report estimates that the monthly cost of a median-priced home could exceed $11,000.
As of this month, Realtor.com put the median listing price of New York City homes at $1.385 million.
“The cost of buying a typical home is nearly three times the cost of renting, and a mortgage rate above 7 percent would push that monthly cost even higher. That combination makes it harder for renters to build savings and move toward homeownership,” Xu said.
New York City’s Manhattan region had the highest asking median rent at $5,375 in the third quarter, which represents an 8.3 percent annual increase, according to the Realtor.com report. The real estate marketplace estimates that households would need to earn at least $215,000 annually to afford Manhattan’s median rent.
The Corcoran Group, a New York-based residential real estate brokerage firm, reported on Oct. 8 that Manhattan’s median signed rent was a record $5,395 in September, as available apartments fell to their lowest level since 2019. The figure represents a 2 percent monthly growth and 9 percent annual growth.
“With demand continuing to outpace supply, competition remains frustratingly intense across much of the borough,” the report stated.
According to the report, the median rent in Brooklyn was $4,300 in September, down almost 2 percent from August’s record high of $4,368 but up 5 percent from September 2025. Meanwhile, available apartments fell 25 percent from a year earlier, “reflecting the ongoing supply shortage.”
“These conditions continue to prop up pricing and create urgency among renters who are searching for new homes throughout the borough,” the report said.
