Builders of multifamily homes broke ground at an annual pace of 340,000 in November, compared with an average 266,000 since 1994, according to Commerce Department data. Nationally, most of the new apartments being built are higher-cost units, which is limiting landlords’ ability to raise rents at the high end of the market while doing little to ease prices for tenants at the low end, Olsen said.
Rents in the New York area increased 1.7 percent from 2013, to a monthly average of $1,228, according to Zillow. They climbed more slowly than the U.S. average as some tenants, even in pricey Manhattan, became buyers or balked at paying landlords more.
A report this month by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate showed the median monthly apartment rent in Manhattan was $3,225 in November, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier. Rents in Brooklyn climbed 5.3 percent to a median of $2,948, while in Queens, they fell 8.2 percent to a median of $2,525, the firms said.