Mercy For Harlem Tenants As Inventory Inches Up — But Rents Still Rise

HARLEM, NY — For the first time in what feels like ages, there's good news for Harlem tenants, as the number of available apartments in the neighborhood has begun slowly inching up — though rent prices are still increasing for now.

The new study by StreetEasy examined rental listings across the city in May. After months of surging demand left the city with barely any open apartments, the report found that inventory has finally begun increasing in many neighborhoods — including Harlem.

Harlem gained 87 available apartments between April and May, according to StreetEasy, with all but one of its sub-neighborhoods seeing inventory growth during that span.

StreetEasy broke down Harlem into four areas — Hamilton Heights, West Harlem, Central Harlem, and East Harlem. All four had experienced steep drops in their inventory since 2020; now, all have begun rising, except for Hamilton Heights, whose inventory kept shrinking in May.

Still, Harlem's inventory remains a far cry from where it stood a few months into the pandemic. In August 2020, there were a staggering 3,322 rentals on the market in the neighborhood, after a mass exodus from the city created a brief paradise for tenants — now, there are only 1,343 apartments available in Harlem.

Harlem's trend is mirrored across Manhattan, where the borough-wide rental inventory has reached 13,933 — a 34 percent increase from its lowest point in December 2021. (Yet that figure is still lower than it was pre-pandemic — Manhattan had 21,881 rental units available in May 2019.)

Queens has been the relative exception to the uptick in inventory, with neighborhoods like Astoria and Sunnyside continuing to see their housing stock depleted even further — probably by people seeking deals in the outer boroughs after fleeing pricey Manhattan neighborhoods, according to the study.

But the slow rise in available apartments has not yet produced any tangible benefits for renters. In all four areas of Harlem, the median asking rent kept increasing between April and May, StreetEasy found.

The breakdown is as follows:

• Central Harlem: increased from $2,650 in April to $2,700 in May
• East Harlem: increased from $2,595 in April to $2,700 in May
• West Harlem: increased from $2,668 in April to $2,874 in May
• Hamilton Heights: increased from $2,595 in April to $2,650 in May

Josh Clark, a senior economist at Zillow, said that renters should try to hold off on searching for apartments until the late summer or early fall, when there may be more options available.

"During the pandemic, the biggest deals were happening in the most expensive parts of the city, especially Downtown Manhattan," Clark said in the StreetEasy report.

"Fast forward to now, those pandemic deals have dried up, and renters who were able to afford living in the city’s most expensive neighborhoods are now being faced with the reality of a fully recovered market."