Manhattan renters who leased their apartments at deep pandemic discounts are sharing their dismay as landlords jack up their rents by as much as 65% or more.
As offices reopen and young people flood back to the city, New York’s supply of available apartments has plunged, and landlords are pressing their advantage by raising rents to new highs.
‘I just got my new lease and guess what, they’re raising my rent 48 percent! And its f***ing legal!’ said New York City resident Gabbie Fried in a January TikTok video.
Fried, a comedy writer and actor, said that she had initially leased her apartment during the pandemic at ‘pandemic prices’, expressing shock at the increase.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many New Yorkers fled the city, and rental prices plunged as desperate landlords tried to lure willing renters into their units.
Many property management firms offered deep discounts or sweeteners, including multiple months of free rent, to entice renters to sign new leases.
But now the worm has turned, and with demand outpacing supply, landlords have been able to raise rents to record highs.
The vacancy rate has plunged in Manhattan, with just 1.32 percent of apartments free in February, compared to 11.79 percent a year ago, and the lowest February rate recorded since 2008.
One-bedrooms saw the biggest annual rate increases, rising 27.1 percent to $3,750, while two-bedrooms rose 20 percent to $5,104.
Fuck ’em.
Half the city didn’t pay rent for the lest year.
TikToker in 2020: “I don’t have to pay rent, they can’t evict me, it’s COVID rules.”
TikToker in 2022: “It’s not fair my rent doubled.”
These people moved into apartments they knew they normally could not afford due to COVID policies and now are pissed that they have to pay market rates.
The soaring rents come even as New Yorkers grapple with a shocking wave of violent crime, leading some to question whether it is worth remaining.
Be sure that it’s not worth remaining in NYC but you keep your ass there. You voted for the people that made these policies a reality. You shit the bed now you have to sleep in it.
Also, anyone that starts with “I’m an actress, comedy writer, and TikTok influencer from New York City…” just fuck them on principle.
These are the people who spent the pandemic telling us in Red states that we deserve to die of COVID for not wanting to wear masks.
Now they can enjoy bankruptcy or homeless while I live in a house for less than what their pandemic rental rate was.
My family rents our home here in Portland. We had a long family talk about two years back where all of us – yes, we included the kids – had a frank talk about rent, budgets, work, and schools.
Eldest daughter had been accepted into a trades-based high school here in the city, youngest daughter had been all-but-officially accepted into an arts-based junior high/high school in the city, I worked nearby, and my husband works from home. We enjoyed the proximity to events, shopping, and whatnot… But for what we were paying in monthly rent, we could have easily been making a mortgage payment on a much larger home an hour or so outside the city.
Now, ultimately, the decision came down to the two adults. But we wanted the input from our kids.
We choose to stay in the city. But, then we all got locked inside the house for two freakin’ years thanks to the SARS-COVID-2 outbreak.
Every time I see a story that revolves around rent control, I remember a trivia fact I ran into three or four years ago.
Even the North Vietnamese communists realized that rent controls were stupid.
NEW DELHI—A “romantic conception of socialism” … destroyed Vietnam’s economy in the years after the Vietnam war, Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach said Friday.
Addressing a crowded news conference in the Indian capital, Mr. Thach admitted that controls … had artificially encouraged demand and discouraged supply…. House rents had … been kept low … so all the houses in Hanoi had fallen into disrepair, said Mr. Thach.
“The Americans couldn’t destroy Hanoi, but we have destroyed our city by very low rents. We realized it was stupid and that we must change policy,” he said.
—From a news report in Journal of Commerce, quoted in Dan Seligman, “Keeping Up,” Fortune, February 27, 1989.
When a policy is so stupid that even actual, real, governing (working) communists realize it’s stupid, that’s mega-stupid. And yet you hear that policy being pushed All The Time by Democrats.
Supply and demand. It’s not just a good idea—- it’s the law!
I am constantly astonished by the insane rents in NYC and SF. $3700 is almost my entire monthly budget for mortgage, utilities car payment, groceries, gas etc. and I live in a moderately expensive area.
$3700 is 10 times my mortage….
$3700 is about double my monthly rent, utilities, and other non-food/non-entertainment expenses… and I’ve got a two-bedroom house, full basement, and one of the largest yards in the neighborhood.
In inner northeast Portland!
And I’m well aware that I’m paying too damn much.