Manhattan's median rent hit $5,295 in June 2026, an all-time high, according to Corcoran's June 2026 Manhattan rental market report. An owner pricing a unit off what the building got in 2024 is leaving real money on the table, and an owner pricing off a headline is usually asking for vacant weeks. The number that decides your rent is narrower than either: what apartments of your size, in your neighborhood, asked in the most recent month, and how many of them there were.
Realtor.com's Q2 2026 rental report puts the New York metro median asking rent at $3,707, up 4.6% year over year, with Manhattan at $5,117, Brooklyn at $4,054, Queens at $3,561, and the Bronx at $3,171. The same report puts Manhattan's rental vacancy under 1.5%. Those are borough-wide medians across every unit size, which is why they sit so far apart from each other and from any single building. Use the lookup below for the number that applies to your unit.
What apartments in your neighborhood asked
Median asking rents for July 2026, by size, with the listing count behind every figure.
What each number means
- Median: half the apartments listed asked more than this and half asked less. One very expensive listing cannot drag this number the way an average gets dragged.
- Year over year: compared with the same month last year, so seasons do not distort it.
- Listings counted: how many apartments were actually listed for rent here that month. Fewer listings usually means renters have less to choose from and owners have more room on price.
- Asking rent, not rent paid: these are asking prices on listings, not signed leases. Final rents can land above or below asking.
- Too few listings here to trust a neighborhood number, so we show the borough figure instead.
Source: StreetEasy Data Dashboard, July 2026. Aggregate rental market data, not individual listings.
Why the sample size sits next to every figure
A median asking rent is only as good as the listings under it. Report a neighborhood studio median built on four listings and one oddly priced apartment sets the price for everybody who reads it. So every figure on this page is built with a floor: if fewer than 30 apartments of that size were listed in that neighborhood in July 2026, the neighborhood number is suppressed before it ever reaches the page and you get the borough figure instead, labeled as such. That rule lives in the data build, not in the display, which means there is no path by which a thin sample renders as a confident neighborhood median.
The figures are asking rents from active listings, not signed leases. Final rents land above asking in a tight month and below asking on a unit that sat. Read the median as the starting line for your pricing conversation, not the finish.
What the FARE Act means for you as an owner
The FARE Act, Local Law 119 of 2024, took effect on June 11, 2025 and changed who can be billed for the broker on a rental. A broker hired by or acting on behalf of a landlord cannot collect any fee from the tenant. A broker who publishes a listing with the owner's permission is presumed to be the owner's agent, and that presumption carries the same result. A handshake arrangement counts the same as a written one, and a tenant cannot waive the protection even if willing.
Two practical duties follow for owners. First, every fee a prospective tenant must pay to rent the apartment gets conspicuously disclosed in the listing itself, application fees included. Second, before the lease is signed, the tenant receives an itemized written disclosure of all fees they must pay, each with a description, signs it, keeps a copy, and the owner retains the signed document for three years. Background and credit check fees permitted by Real Property Law 238-a are unaffected. Enforcement sits with the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and tenants can also sue in civil court, so the paperwork is worth getting right the first time. This is a description of the law rather than legal advice, and an owner with an unusual arrangement should ask counsel.
Owners who advertise their own unit
An owner who advertises a unit on channels they control does not necessarily create an agency relationship with a broker. REBNY's guidance for owners who do not want to be represented is to state in the advertisement that it is for informational purposes only, that it is not intended to create an agency relationship between a licensee and the landlord, and that the landlord has not hired any broker for the rental of the unit. A "courtesy of" credit line does not accomplish this.
The rider packet a New York lease has to carry
The Good Cause Eviction notice has been law since 2024 and it is the one owners miss most, because it goes in even when the unit is exempt, stating which exemption applies. Below is the full packet for a free-market apartment: what attaches at signing, what repeats every year, and where each form comes from. Rent-stabilized units do not use this list. They use the DHCR stabilized lease and rider instead.
Attach to every new lease and every renewal
| Document | What it covers | Legal basis | Official form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead-based paint disclosure, plus the EPA pamphlet | Known lead paint and hazards. Any building built before 1978. The signed pamphlet goes with the disclosure. | Federal, 42 USC 4852d, with NYC Local Law 31 of 2020 | Disclosure form Pamphlet |
| Window guard lease notice | Guards must be installed where a child 10 or under lives in the unit, or on tenant request. Goes in every NYC residential lease. | NYC Health Code 131.15 | Notice |
| Bedbug infestation history, Form DBB-N | The prior year of bedbug history for the building and the unit. Ties to the building annual bedbug filing with HPD. | NYS HCR form, NYC Housing Maintenance Code | Form DBB-N |
| Indoor allergen hazards notice | Mold and pest hazards, and the owner duty to inspect and remediate. Applies to multiple dwellings. | NYC Local Law 55 of 2018 | Notice |
| Gas leak, smoke alarm and carbon monoxide notice | The what-to-do-if-you-smell-gas procedure, combined with smoke and CO alarm responsibilities. | NYC HPD combined notice | Notice |
| Reasonable accommodation request form | The request vehicle for a tenant with a disability. The separate duty to notify a tenant of that right is usually a short statement in the lease body, which counsel should word. | NYC Human Rights Law | HPD form |
| Good Cause Eviction notice | States whether the unit is covered by Good Cause or which exemption applies. Owners of 10 or fewer units may be exempt and still give the notice stating that status. This is the one owners miss most. | NYS Real Property Law 231-c, 2024 | Notice |
| Sprinkler disclosure | Whether the unit has a maintained, operative sprinkler system, and if it does, the last inspection date. No agency form exists. This is a clause the lease form or the attorney supplies. | NYS Real Property Law 231-a | Statute text |
| Flood history and risk disclosure | Whether the unit sits in a FEMA flood zone and any flood history. No agency form exists. Also a lease clause. | NYS Real Property Law 231-b, in effect since 2023 | Statute text |
Conditional: buildings with three or more units
| Document | What it covers | Legal basis | Official form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoking policy disclosure | Buildings with three or more units adopt a written smoking policy and include it in the lease. A two-family skips this. | NYC Local Law 147 of 2017 | Sample policy |
Repeats every year
| Document | What it covers | Legal basis | Official form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual lead paint and window guard notice | Send between January 1 and January 15. The tenant returns it by February 15. | NYC Health Code and Local Law 31 of 2020 | Notice |
| Annual stove knob cover notice | By January 16, for any unit with a gas stove. | NYC HPD | Notice |
| Annual indoor allergen hazards notice | The same allergen notice repeats annually, not only at signing. | NYC Local Law 55 of 2018 | Notice |
Not riders: these go in the lease body
The 2019 rent law (HSTPA) changed three things the lease itself has to reflect:
- Security deposit capped at one month of rent, with an itemized return within 14 days of move-out.
- Late fee capped at $50 or 5% of monthly rent, whichever is less, and collectible only if it is written into the lease.
- Increase or non-renewal notice for any raise above 5%: 30 days for a tenant under one year, 60 days from one to two years, 90 days beyond two years.
Under the FARE Act, the itemized fee disclosure the tenant signs before the lease may ride along as a rider, though changing a fee later then requires a lease amendment.
Every link above points at the agency site rather than a copy stored here, because the agencies revise these forms and a stale lead paint or Good Cause notice helps an owner less than none at all. This list describes the requirements and is not legal advice. Your attorney confirms the packet before first use, and confirms your building's Good Cause status in particular.
Does your unit carry all eleven, or is it short three?
Which of these apply turns on the building's year of construction, the unit count, whether there is a gas stove, and the Good Cause status. Send me the address and the number of units and I will tell you what that unit owes, in the same message as the asking rent built on the current month.
How I list an owner's rental
I have been licensed in New York since November 2001 and I work across the five boroughs and the Hudson Valley, in English and Spanish. Rentals are part of that practice rather than an afterthought to it: I have an active rental listing right now, and the process is the same discipline as a sale, run on a shorter clock.
- Price from the current month. Your asking rent comes from what comparable units in your neighborhood asked in the most recent month at your bedroom count, adjusted for floor, light, layout, condition, and building amenities. Not from last year, and not from the borough headline.
- Media that carries the unit. Photography and video that show layout and light, because a renter scrolling a feed decides in about two seconds whether to book a viewing.
- Distribution where renters look. The listing goes out through the RLS and the syndication chain, plus the social channels where I publish my listings in both languages.
- Applicant screening on documents. Income verification, credit, employment, prior landlord references, applied on the same standard to every applicant, which is both fair housing law and the only screening that actually predicts anything.
- A lease package that satisfies current disclosure rules. The itemized fee disclosure, the signature sequence, and the retention copy handled as part of the file rather than remembered afterward.
Some of the transactions I have marketed, rented, or sold are published at miltoncoste.com/listings, sorted by price level, more than 1,100 in total.
Or run the sell-instead math first
Plenty of owners arrive here deciding between a tenant and a closing. The honest way to settle it is on paper: what the unit nets you per year as a rental against what a sale would put in your pocket after transfer taxes, attorney fees, and any co-op flip tax. The net proceeds calculator handles the sale side, and I will run the rental side with your carrying costs.
The median recorded sale price for a home in NYC was $935,000 in July 2026, across 2,139 recorded sales (StreetEasy Data Dashboard). That is 8.7% higher than July 2025. These figures describe the market in the month named, not live inventory. The active listings on this site come straight from the RLS feed.
Frequently asked questions
Which riders have to be attached to a New York City lease?
For a free-market apartment the packet runs to about eleven items. Attached at signing and at renewal: the lead paint disclosure with the EPA pamphlet for any building built before 1978, the window guard notice, the bedbug history form DBB-N, the indoor allergen hazards notice, the combined gas leak and smoke and carbon monoxide notice, the reasonable accommodation form, and the Good Cause Eviction notice, which goes in even when the unit is exempt and states the exemption. Sprinkler disclosure under Real Property Law 231-a and flood history under 231-b have no agency form and are lease clauses instead. Buildings with three or more units add a written smoking policy. Three notices repeat annually: lead and window guard between January 1 and 15, stove knob covers by January 16 where there is a gas stove, and the allergen notice. Rent-stabilized units use the DHCR lease and rider instead of this list. The packet with a link to each agency form sits at miltoncoste.com/list-your-rental-nyc. This describes the requirements and is not legal advice.
How much can I ask for my NYC apartment?
Start from what comparable units in your neighborhood actually asked, at your bedroom count, in the most recent month. The owner rent lookup at miltoncoste.com/list-your-rental-nyc reports the median asking rent for July 2026 by size, sourced from the StreetEasy Data Dashboard, along with how many apartments were listed that month, because a median built on 40 listings and a median built on 4 are not the same claim. Median means half the listings asked more and half asked less. From that baseline, the adjustments that matter are floor, light, layout, whether the line is renovated, elevator and laundry in the building, and how quickly you need the unit filled. An owner who prices at the neighborhood median and photographs the unit properly usually beats an owner who prices above the median and waits, because vacant weeks cost more than the difference.
Who is allowed to collect a broker fee from a tenant in NYC now?
Under the FARE Act, Local Law 119 of 2024, effective June 11, 2025, a broker hired by or acting on behalf of a landlord cannot collect any fee from the tenant, and a broker who publishes a listing with the landlord's permission is presumed to be the landlord's agent and cannot charge the tenant either. A tenant who independently hires a broker of their own pays that broker. A tenant cannot opt out of the protection, even willingly, and an oral agreement between an owner and a broker counts the same as a written one. Owners who advertise their own units on channels they control do not necessarily create an agency relationship with any broker. The enforcing agency is the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and tenants also have a private right of action.
What do I have to disclose to a tenant before the lease is signed?
Every fee a prospective tenant must pay to rent the apartment has to be conspicuously disclosed in the listing itself, application fees included. Before the lease is signed, the owner or the owner's agent gives the tenant an itemized written disclosure of all fees the tenant must pay, each with a written description. The tenant signs that disclosure before signing the lease, receives a copy, and the owner keeps the signed disclosure for three years. It can ride along as a lease rider, though changing a fee later then requires a lease amendment. Background check and credit check fees allowed under Real Property Law 238-a are still permitted, and repair or replacement costs do not have to be disclosed under this rule. This is a description of the law, not legal advice.
Why does the lookup show a borough number instead of my neighborhood?
Because too few apartments of that size were listed in that neighborhood in July 2026 for the owner rent lookup at miltoncoste.com/list-your-rental-nyc to publish a number anyone should price against. The cutoff is 30 listings, applied when the data file is built rather than at display time, so a thin sample can never reach the page dressed up as a neighborhood median. When a cell falls under the cutoff you get the borough figure, labeled as the borough figure. That is not a gap in the research, it is the honest answer: in a month with six listings, one unusual apartment moves the median enough to send an owner into a bad price.
Should I rent the apartment out or sell it?
It is an arithmetic question before it is a preference. On the rental side you have the achievable asking rent from the owner rent lookup at miltoncoste.com/list-your-rental-nyc, minus maintenance or common charges, taxes on a condo, insurance, the vacancy weeks between tenants, and the repairs a tenanted unit generates. On the sale side you have the price the unit supports today, minus transfer taxes, attorney fees, and any co-op flip tax, which is what the seller net proceeds calculator at miltoncoste.com/seller-net-proceeds-calculator works out. Then the real comparison: what the net sale proceeds would earn if invested against what the unit nets you each year while you hold it. Owners with a low remaining mortgage and a stabilized building often hold. Owners carrying a high maintenance on a unit that has appreciated hard often do better selling. I will run both sides with your actual numbers.
Do you list rentals yourself, or only sales?
Both. I market and lease rentals for owners across the five boroughs and the Hudson Valley, and I have an active rental listing right now. Owner-side rental work is the same discipline as a sale, compressed: price it from the current month of comparable asking rents rather than from last year, photograph and film it properly, publish it where renters actually look, screen applicants on documented income and credit, and hand the owner a lease package that satisfies the current disclosure rules. I work in English and Spanish, which matters on a rental where applicants and owners often do not share a first language.
Talk to Milton About Your Rental
Tell me where the unit is, how many bedrooms, and when you need it filled. I will come back with an asking price built on the current month and a marketing plan.
Milton's listings and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, the New York Post, and Haven Lifestyles. See the coverage.