New York landlords are jacking up rents — often by 50, 60 or 70% — on tenants who locked in deals last year when prices were in freefall.
For ten months, the pandemic-hit rental market in Manhattan has given people the chance of a lifetime to move into the apartment of their dreams. Now steep hikes mean some renters are being forced to move at a time when the market is roaring back to nearly pre-pandemic levels.
Tenants, like 24-year-old Claire Smith, have limited options. Though she knows she has to find a new place, she's pinning her hopes on a cooling of the market some predict will happen in the fall.