The median asking rent in the city reached a record high of $3,785 in the third quarter, up $162, or 4.5%, from a year earlier, according to the Realtor.com 2026 Q3 NYC Rental Report released Tuesday. That is the highest level since the site began tracking the data in the second quarter of 2019, and $816, or 27.5%, above where rents stood before the pandemic.

And it’s not just renting: buying a median-priced home cost an estimated $10,737 a month in the same period—$6,952 more than renting.

“New York City renters are facing a difficult affordability equation: rents are rising, especially for the smaller homes many renters compete for, while the cost of buying remains dramatically higher,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “For renters hoping to save for a down payment, the squeeze is coming from both directions.”

Smaller units driving the change

Smaller apartments drove the increase, as the median asking rent for units with zero to two bedrooms rose 7.1% from a year earlier, to $3,662. Rent for units with three or more bedrooms still rose, but slightly: 2.9% to $5,089.

Rents rose in every borough Realtor.com tracked. Manhattan led with an 8.3% increase to $5,375. Brooklyn rose 4.9% to $4,197, Queens rose 3.9% to $3,744 and the Bronx rose 2.7% to $3,233.

The longer-term gains are steepest outside Manhattan. Over seven years, rents climbed 64.6% in the Bronx, 50.5% in Brooklyn and 49.2% in Queens, as compared with 35.6% in Manhattan, according to the report.

Under the common guideline that rent should take no more than 30% of income, a household would need to earn about $215,000 a year to afford the typical Manhattan rental. The threshold is $167,880 in Brooklyn, $149,760 in Queens and $129,320 in the Bronx. And that’s just the average: spending more money to stay competitive with limited options will take up more of one’s paycheck.

“That combination makes it harder for renters to build savings and move toward homeownership,” Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said.

Those dollar figures are aspirational, however, as pay has not kept up for many workers. Average hourly earnings for private-sector employees in New York City rose 4.2% from a year earlier in August, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the report—well behind the 7.1% jump in rents for smaller units.

The gains also varied by industry. Hourly earnings rose 1% in manufacturing and were flat in private education and health services. They fell from a year earlier in goods-producing industries and in construction. For workers in those fields, the 4.5% citywide rent increase means a loss of buying power.

“New York City’s rent growth is broad-based, but the sharpest increase is in the smaller-unit segment, where affordability-minded renters are competing for limited options,” said Xu.

Don’t think saving up for a down payment would spare the increase costs, as buying offered little escape. The estimated monthly cost of a median-priced home fell about 1%, or $107, from a year earlier, as the median listing price dropped 2% to $1,409,792. That decline outweighed a small rise in the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, from 6.57% to 6.68%.

With rates now surging past 7% in late September, the same home would cost about $11,008 a month, $164 more than a year earlier, which more than wipes out the savings from lower prices.

Realtor.com’s figure for the cost of buying assumes a 10% down payment, because first-time buyers tend to plan smaller down payments, and includes estimated homeowners association fees, taxes and insurance along with the mortgage payment. The rent figures reflect asking rents for units listed on the site, including apartments, condos, townhomes and single-family homes.