NYC rent growth remained resilient in early 2026, with Manhattan leading year-over-year gains and Brooklyn continuing to drive short-term momentum across the boroughs.

National rents rose 1.2% year-over-year in February, down from 1.4% in January and 1.6% in December, marking a continued slowdown from the modest re-acceleration observed in late 2024. While rent growth remains positive, the trend has clearly softened, reflecting ongoing supply pressures and a normalization in demand following the post-pandemic surge.

A data-driven look at how utility costs as a share of rent have changed for multifamily renters since 2000, based on American Community Survey microdata.

A data-driven look at one-year home price growth across the NYC housing market, showing Manhattan lagging while Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island post broad gains, based on Zillow data through January 2026.

National multifamily rents rose 1.4% year over year in January 2026 as rent growth continued to moderate. Metro-level performance remains uneven across markets.

A closer look at the US Census Bureau’s Rental Housing Finance Survey shows that individual investors still account for the majority of single-family rental ownership, even as legal structures continue to evolve.

Multifamily rent growth remained subdued in December 2025, with national rent gains continuing to register positive in nominal terms but negative after adjusting for inflation. The latest Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) data point to a rent environment that is materially cooler than the post-pandemic peak and running below long-run historical norms in real terms, even as nominal rents continue to edge modestly higher.

Over the past two decades, the New York City metro rental market hasn’t just grown — it has aged. Beneath the headline narratives about rent growth and post-pandemic volatility, a quieter structural shift has been unfolding: nearly all net growth in rental households has come from renters over the age of 35, while the number of under-35 renters has barely changed.

Multifamily rent growth continued to moderate in November 2025, with national rent gains remaining positive in nominal terms but negative after adjusting for inflation. The latest Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) data point to a rent environment that is materially cooler than the post-pandemic peak and running below long-run historical norms, even as nominal rents continue to edge higher.

Over the past decade, the share of homeowners who own their homes free and clear has risen sharply across the New York metropolitan area. This dynamic is most extreme in Manhattan (New York County), where roughly 50% of homeowners now own their homes without a mortgage.

If Thanksgiving 2020 feels like a long time ago, your grocery bill agrees. Across the core staples of a traditional holiday spread, prices are meaningfully higher than they were five years ago — though not always in the ways people expect.

Nationally, rents grew an average of 0.11% month over month. If sustained for a full year, that would translate to annual rent growth of about 1.4% — modest, but still positive. However, rent growth continues to come in below CPI inflation, which is currently holding near 3%, meaning inflation‑adjusted rents are falling

Health insurance coverage patterns reveal a clear divide between renters and homeowners. Renters are nearly three times as likely to be uninsured as homeowners (11.7% versus 4.4%) and are far more reliant on public coverage.Just under half of renters (48.8%) have private insurance, compared with a majority of homeowners (54.5%). Meanwhile, nearly one in three renters (29%) rely exclusively on public insurance, underscoring the income and employment disparities that shape access to private plans.

69.4% of multifamily markets nationwide saw rents rise between August and September—down a de minimis 44 basis points from the prior month (69.8%).

Notably, the number of moves is up 12.1% compared to the 2024 total, making it the largest annual increase since at least the turn of the century. Further, it is the first time that the number of moves increased in consecutive years since 2010.

Seventy percent (70.0%) of multifamily markets in the US saw rents rise between July and August—the high-water mark for the year.

One in three US households (33.3%) has a school-age child. While the perception is that multifamily rentals mostly attract young, childless households, the reality is more nuanced. According to the 2023 American Community Survey, about 4.0 million multifamily households include a school-age child—roughly one in five of all multifamily households (18.3%).

In this briefing, we explore how multifamily growth has unfolded across the urban spectrum over the past 10 years — and why the space between suburban and urban markets deserves a closer look.

In this deep dive, we identify which US metro areas are best positioned for robust rent growth over the next year.

This is the second consecutive year that WFH rentals have dipped, following the peak of 5.0 million households in 2021.

In this analysis, we will examine homeownership rates and household estimates for homes with and without children.

Naturally, with distinct differences in tenant mix by property type, there are also sizable differences in the average length of occupancy.

Nationally, according to the 2023 American Community Survey, the non-citizen share of the construction labor force stands at 17.0%.

In this data briefing, we explore how the average prices of the American Thanksgiving Feast’s cornerstone items have trended in 2024