New York State Rent Report – Year End 2019

• The U.S. average rent ended the year with a 3% ($43) increase since last December, but decreased by a slight 0.1% ($1) month-over-month, dipping to $1,474 according to data from Yardi Matrix.
• Mount Vernon, NY renters saw the highest monthly rent increase in December, with the average rate reaching $1,823 per month. 
• White Plains apartments are the most expensive, while apartments in Cheektowaga have the cheapest rents. 

At year-end, the national average rent sees the slowest annual rise in 17 months

Nationally, apartments were renting for $1,474 on average at the end of 2019, after the slowest annual rise in the past 17 months, 3%. Furthermore, rates displayed a slower yearly growth at the end of 2019 than in the previous year, when they went up by 3.2% according to apartment rent data from Yardi Matrix. In net dollars, renters are now paying $43 more per month for an apartment than they did in December 2018. By comparison, in the previous year, they saw a $45 rent hike compared to 2017. The winddown comes after a decade of thriving apartment construction in which over 2.4M units were delivered across the U.S.

The national average rent also saw two consecutive monthly dips, declining by a slight 0.1% in both November and December. As fewer people look for new apartments during the cold season, rents usually slow down or decline, explaining why last month, prices flatlined in 94% of the cities we analyzed and shrunk in another 3%. Only 3% of cities saw apartment rents increase since November.

Renting in New York State in December 2019

The average rent in New York State cities is just about evenly split between cities with rents higher and lower than the national average. The fastest growing rents in December were in Mount Vernon, where apartment prices increased by 1.5% month over month, or $27. Buffalo and Holbrook apartments saw the second highest monthly increase, jumping by 0.8% and making them $9 and $17, respectively, more expensive than last month, while in Mineola prices decreased by 3.4% ($95) compared to November.

White Plains apartments are the area’s most expensive for renters, with an average rent of $2,864, followed by apartments in Mineola, where the average monthly rent is $2,727. Meanwhile, the most affordable of the cities analyzed is Cheektowaga, with an average apartment rent of $855.

To compare the rental market in New York State with other cities in the U.S., you can also check our national year end rent report.

Methodology

RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent throughout the United States.

The data on average rents included in our reports comes directly from competitively-rented (market-rate) large-scale multifamily properties (50+ units in size), via telephone survey. The data is compiled and reported by our sister company Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage sectors. Fully-affordable properties are not included in the survey and are not reported in rental rate averages. Local rent reports include only cities with a statistically-relevant stock of large-scale multifamily properties of 50+ units.