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Median rents of apartments in Manhattan soared to a new peak in March, according to new data from the real estate firm Douglas Elliman.

The median rental price in Manhattan reached $4,175 per month last month, up 2% from February and up 12.8% from March 2022. This broke the record set in July 2022 when Manhattan’s median monthly rent was $4,150.

Along with the higher price is a higher level of leasing activity: there were 4,863 new leases in March, up 20.5% from 4,037 in February. Listing inventory totaled 6,366, a 6.3% upswing from February.

Nonetheless, Manhattan’s apartment vacancy rate inched up from 2.30% in February to 2.54% in March – although it was still under the 3% level of the decade average.

On the luxury housing side of the sector, the median rental price in Manhattan dropped to $10,500 per month from February’s $11,000 level, a 4.5% slide – the record level in this area was $13,000 per month set last October.

“The market share of two-year leases expanded to 56.3%, the highest level in 20 months, as tenants want to lock in rents with the expectations of higher rent prices going forward,” said the Douglas Elliman report.