NYC’s fierce and chaotic battle for apartment rentals leaves renters desperate and defeated

The hunt for an apartment in New York has gone from frustrating to wild.

This summer, renters are fighting it out like never before, all for a shot at a roof over their heads in a city where landlords are calling in and raising prices to astronomical levels.

Take Aurielle Catron, a 29-year-old security engineer who braved the NYC jungle in search of a two-bedroom in Bushwick. After a brutal month-long search and 52 viewings, Catron landed a fourth-floor walk-up rent-stabilized for $3,200 a month.

It wasn’t the pad of her dreams — it lacked a laundry room and an elevator — but after losing a bidding war that saw a $2,800 unit go to $3,600, she was relieved to have a place to call home.

“People are willing to say, ‘Hey, if you give me this apartment, I’ll pay $200, $500, $600 rent-seeking,'” she told Bloomberg, which reported on today’s general rent crash . “I can’t compete with that.”

But it’s not just about losing deals. For Amber Melhouse, 49, the stakes were even higher. Forced out of her Brooklyn home when the landlord raised the rent by $1,350 a month — too much for her to handle after a divorce — Melhouse’s search for a smaller place turned into a horror show.

At one studio, she showed up half an hour early, only to find a line of four people in front of her and a crowd forming behind her. The seat was snapped up before she had a chance to apply. Now she’s bumping into friends, considering giving up her small pet-sitting business, and wondering if she’ll ever have to leave New York altogether.

“I feel like this whole apartment-hunting experience has been a test of whether I should stay in New York. Is this New York’s way of kicking me out?” Melhouse told the media. “I don’t want to leave because my whole life is here.”

This wild rental market isn’t just a collection of horror stories — it’s the grim reality for thousands of New Yorkers this summer. Bidding wars, outrageous rents and lines of desperate apartment hunters snaking down the block are the new normal. It’s been a few years now.

According to Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, the tables turned in favor of landlords immediately after the pandemic.

“The owners regained control and the owners could dictate terms that were more and more favorable to them,” he said.

In fact, some of these tactics are dirty tricks. Real estate agents are sparking bidding wars by undervaluing apartments, pulling in a slew of open house hopefuls and then picking the highest bidder or the tenant with the best finances.

“There are a lot of TikTok brokers right now that are trying to make things go viral,” Douglas Elliman agent Keyan Sanai told Bloomberg. “At the end of the day, we’re in the sales business. But 80% of rental market competition is real.”

This summer, with recent notes flooding the market and mortgage rates so high that even the thought of home ownership is off the table, renters are in the pressure cooker.

For some, like Cornell graduate Matthew Braganza, the search for a pad became more exhausting than the job hunt.

Despite landing a solid accounting gig, Braganza had to jump through hoops — like providing personal references, his LinkedIn profile and a cover letter — just to stand out from the pack. After seeing nearly 100 apartments, he gave up on living alone and is now sharing a place on the Lower East Side with three roommates.

“I had a harder time finding an apartment than finding a job,” Braganza said. “I felt like I was competing with a million people.”

Agents like Thomas Hollingsworth of Compass are taking full advantage of the desperation. For applicants with little rental history or limited income, he is looking for college transcripts.

“If you were a student, we’re much more likely to believe that you’re going to be successful at your job and be able to pay your rent,” Hollingsworth said. “If you dropped out or got all D’s, we’re going to be a lot more careful.”

And don’t think for a second that bidding wars are entirely organic. Some agents are playing dirty, holding back-to-back open houses and booking appointments just minutes apart, creating a frenzy that drives rents even higher.

Bill Kowalczuk of Coldwell Banker Warburg acknowledged that these tactics almost always push offers above asking price. It’s the kind of strategy that’s making New York’s “Wild West” market more chaotic than ever.

The rental frenzy reached new heights in June, when bidding wars erupted in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with nearly a quarter of new rentals in both boroughs caught up in the frenzy.

Hollingsworth himself set up a “basic” $2,000 fourth-floor studio in central Manhattan on Second Avenue, which brought in 100 people and 20 applicants, eventually leasing to someone who offered $2,075 and was “generally nice.” to work.

An applicant who offered just $25 more but proved difficult to afford was passed over, sparing the landlord a potentially troublesome tenant, Hollingsworth said.