After the average rent for roommates in New York City spiked in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by the roommate-finding site SpareRoom indicated prices began to stabilize during the third quarter of 2024, reaching $1,540.
After hitting its peak average roommate rent of $1,625 during the second quarter of 2023, New York City has seen a steady decline. The cost dropped to $1,581 in the third quarter of 2023 and $1,571 in the fourth quarter. A new low was reached in the first quarter of 2024, at $1,489, before jumping back up to $1,543 during the second quarter.
Among the 29 metro areas in the study, New York City is one of just five not to reach record highs in average roommate rent during the second or third quarter of 2024. One likely contributing factor as to why this did not happen in New York City, along with Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C., is because supply and demand has already rebalanced there. Many more rooms have become available in these areas for potential renters, resulting in a reduction in price. There is also optimism that the other cities in the study may soon see similar trends.
Following the high point of 6.9 times as many people looking for rooms as there were available, which was reached in the summer of 2021 among all the cities in the study, this number has taken a downward trend. That number has since plummeted to 2.9 people per room.
This change is even more amplified in New York City, with that number falling from as high as 9.7 renters for every available room in 2022 to 4.8 in October 2024. As a result, the market is now more balanced than it was during and immediately after the pandemic.
Even with the cost of rent having gone down in New York City, it is still a very expensive place to live. The average roommate rent for the four boroughs are $1,891 in Manhattan, $1,499 in Brooklyn, $1,254 in Queens and $1,134 in the Bronx.
“Average roommate rents in NYC are currently the most expensive in the US and, despite showing signs of easing, are still becoming increasingly difficult to afford,” SpareRoom Director Matt Hutchinson said. “What we do know is that living with roommates will always be a cheaper option than living on your own. Sharing your living space means not having to sacrifice on location and that you’re less likely to cut costs in other places such as your social life and hobbies.”
Some of the least expensive neighborhoods across New York City were determined by SpareRoom to be Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, at $1,002 a month, and Woodside and Elmhurst in Queens, at $1,038 and $1,041 respectively. Another notable neighborhood within the New York metropolitan area is Newark, New Jersey, with an average roommate rent of $964 a month.
