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Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

leaseswap.nyc

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Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#21
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever since sex and the city of the 90s, rent in NYC has skyrocketed more than anywhere else in the world. $6k is cheap. There’s places that are $20k… (no correlation with the show, just ironic)

Not sure why you are dating it there. For one thing, housing prices in NY fell from 2007-2012 so it hasn't been monotonic since the 90s to today. Secondly, housing costs in NY tripled from 1980-1988, which is the same ratio as 2000-2025, but in a third the time.

>Secondly, housing costs in NY tripled from 1980-1988

Doesn't this correlate with the steep drop in crime around that same time period?

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#22
post #3

The average 2br rent for the last 2 years was $4,536 The average for the last month is is $5,738 This is a 25%+ increase, let's say around 10% of that can be accounted for via seasonal increases. The almost certain incoming mayor has pushed for rent stabilization/control/freeze. Let's assume this restricts increases to 10% Y/Y similar to cities like Seattle, this would cause at least a 5% recessionary pressure for ho…

Some of it has to do with the FARE bill making broker fees illegal. That should account for a 5% of the increase.

NYC has negligible vacancy rates and airbnbs are already illegal. Sounds like a supply problem. The supply problem gets clearer when you realize how quickly the jersey side has grown. It's because NYC has no supply.

I have no proof for this, but lots of influencer types, nepo babies and people with remote jobs moved to NY during covid and didn't leave. NY Metro population never saw a covid dip, has been steadily growing and RTO mandates are probably causing suburbanites to consider moving back into the city. We are seeing price increases from a repressed real estate market that's finally making bank from the supply crunch.

Compare NYC metro area to SF metro area. NYC saw smaller covid drop, larger subsequent pct growth and a much much larger absolute growth rate. Rent control won't fix anything. They need to start approving market-rate housing at a mad rate. Austin is a great reference.

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/cities/23083/new-...

[2] https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/cities/23130/san-...

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain units in NYC (about 1mm) are always rent stabilized. They’re rent stabilized because that was the agreement the developer made when getting permissions to build the apartments or more likely because they took advantage of tax abatements and benefits that required a certain percentage of rent stabilized apartments. Mamdani’s stated policy is to set the y/y increase in rent for already stabilized apartments to…

For most Mamdani policies you can find a closely corresponding Bloomberg policy. The man is not a Molotov-throwing revolutionary.

You still have to explain the elite freakout, if he's just Bloomberg Lite. His tone is important. He's getting people used to the idea that they can ask for these things, and that politicians can run on them without obfuscating, for fear of the always-anti-socialist crowd. He's shifting the Overton window.

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#24
post #18

Something seems off with this data. Specifically, DUMBO-Vinegar Hill—Downtown Brooklyn—Boerum Hill has a median rent of $2600, which seems very suspicious. Also, there's no data for Crown Heights North.

The neighborhood map seems a little busted. Selecting Fort Greene searches for Elmhurst for some reason. Also, most of Williamsburg is labelled "North Side-South Side" and selecting it searches for Kew Gardens Hills.

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#25
post #22
post #3

The average 2br rent for the last 2 years was $4,536 The average for the last month is is $5,738 This is a 25%+ increase, let's say around 10% of that can be accounted for via seasonal increases. The almost certain incoming mayor has pushed for rent stabilization/control/freeze. Let's assume this restricts increases to 10% Y/Y similar to cities like Seattle, this would cause at least a 5% recessionary pressure for ho…

Some of it has to do with the FARE bill making broker fees illegal. That should account for a 5% of the increase. NYC has negligible vacancy rates and airbnbs are already illegal. Sounds like a supply problem. The supply problem gets clearer when you realize how quickly the jersey side has grown. It's because NYC has no supply. I have no proof for this, but lots of influencer types, nepo babies and people with remote…

Just to piggyback some info onto the FARE Act that the NYC City Council passed because I think it's interesting when talking about the second-order effects of some regulations.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this Act, NYC has been an outlier in the US where the tenant would pay a broker fee to rent apartments that were listed by a broker. The odd thing about it has been that it's not the tenant who would historically "hire" the broker, but instead the landlord/owner. And the benefit to the landlord/owner is obvious: they didn't need to expend any resources/energy to market the property for lease and then once a tenant was found the tenant would take care of paying for the broker's efforts through a fee that would range from, say, 8% up to 15% or more of the annual lease rate (e.g., $3000 per month apartment minimum fee would be $3k and sometimes a multiple of that if the broker could get away with it). With the FARE Act this practice where the landlord hired the broker and the tenant pays the fee was banned. You may see where this is going...

For some reason, the NYC City Council thought (and still does think because you can't admit a potential mistake) that the landlord was going to now eat the broker's fee without raising the rent to offset that additional cost. So far? Landlords are not eating the fee and instead are raising the rents. And the worst of it is that the broker fee was always a one-time fee meaning that if the tenant stayed in place they wouldn't be paying the fee again upon lease renewal. Now? The tenant is paying the increased rent to offset the landlord having to pay the fee and that is now the baseline of all future rent increases.

Still early days for the FARE Act, but any reasonable person would've understood that landlords would not eat the broker fee and that this would cause an overnight increase in rents, which... it did (literally overnight once the Act was in effect).

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#27
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain units in NYC (about 1mm) are always rent stabilized. They’re rent stabilized because that was the agreement the developer made when getting permissions to build the apartments or more likely because they took advantage of tax abatements and benefits that required a certain percentage of rent stabilized apartments. Mamdani’s stated policy is to set the y/y increase in rent for already stabilized apartments to…

For most Mamdani policies you can find a closely corresponding Bloomberg policy. The man is not a Molotov-throwing revolutionary.

The issue is their track record. No one believes election campaign promises.

Bloomberg is a centi-billionaire with a track record of loving the free market. His mayoral terms were known for fiscal discipline (vs social welfare spending), hard-on-crime stances (vs. abolish police) and a strong focus on data driven outcomes (vs. intent).

Mamdani is a member of the DSA, which has a track record of being anti-business (Amazon HQ2), pro-regulation (making housing expensive) and pro-union (IMO, NYC unions are a cartel keeping housing & transit more expensive than they need to be).

On paper, they might endorse similar policies, but politicians are judged by their track record and immediate association.

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#29
post #17

I think it’s important to note that this is asking rent, not what people are paying on average. Landlords do tricks to make rental history appear more expensive than it was, and every online posting should be read as aspirational price, not a real one. Listing inflation helps increase price expectations for the future, and has helped drive the crazy rent inflation NYC has seen post covid (exceeding other expensive me…

This is a widespread issue and one of the sources of the major dislocation between theory (supply-and-demand) and practice (rents effectively never drop, on paper). It needs to be outlawed. If you have to lower your rate, you (should) have to actually lower your rate. The rent is (should be) what tenants pay, full stop.

I'm sure the people underwriting the loans will catch on as long as we're not dumb enough to bail them out a second time.

Re: Show HN: An interactive dashboard to explore NYC rentals data

#30

I've never lived in NYC - are median studio apts in West Village really $6k? Website looks awesome but I'm hoping that the data isn't true

> I've never lived in NYC - are median studio apts in West Village really $6k? Website looks awesome but I'm hoping that the data isn't true The West Village is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country. In around 2010, it was the most expensive zip code in the country. That's due to a combination of: old buildings, very little new construction, extremely gentrified neighborhood, and NYU eating up all of…

Saw this too and to reinforce your point about the West Village the conflation of Greenwich with West is actually decreasing the actual severity of the rents in the West Village (since Greenwich Village, on average, is cheaper).

Not sure where creator is getting their neighborhood data from, but if you're reading this a) great job and b) if you can find a more accurate neighborhood source the utility and credibility of what you've created will go up (that's not a knock, but if New Yorkers love one thing it's knowing their city and so as soon as they see data/info that doesn't match the reality on the ground they might bail before giving this a chance).

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