Photo: Robert Clark

Following a robust summer, rents edged downwards in both Brooklyn and Queens in October.

Both rental markets are now showing signs of a “correction,” according to a monthly report released earlier this week by New York brokerage MNS.

Over the last month, average rents decreased just over 1 percent to $2,752 in Brooklyn and just under 1 percent to $2,232 in Queens. Additionally, rents fell annually across all unit types in both boroughs in October.

Rent decreases were expected entering the traditionally slow fourth quarter.

“As we entered a cyclical slowdown point, rental price decreases during October were expected. In addition to seasonality, an increased amount in both concessions and supply also exerted downward pressure on rental prices,” says MNS CEO Andrew Barrocas in the report.

Rents may have also reached their affordability ceiling, for now at least.

“Pricing has reached its max for this part of the cycle, but once it plateaus it will come to surpass the max it was at,” Barrocas tells BuzzBuzzNews.

Most Brooklyn neighborhoods recorded monthly declines in rent. However rents were up 1 percent in Bay Ridge, 1.2 percent in Brooklyn Heights, 2.6 percent in Clinton Hill, and 0.5 percent in Cobble Hill.

DUMBO, which is bubbling with new construction projects, remained home to the borough’s most expensive rentals, while the least expensive rentals were in the Bay Ridge area.

Similarly, the majority of Queens neighborhoods saw month-over-month drops in rent, except for Ridgewood, Flushing, and Cobble Hill, where rents increased 5.3 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

The most substantial annual increase was recorded in the Flushing neighborhood, where overall rents rose 9.4 percent from last year in October.

Long Island City had the most expensive rentals in Queens, while Jackson Heights and Ridgewood were home to the least expensive.

As we approach the year’s end, rents are continued to trend downward.

“This is the traditional slow point for the NYC rental market, and rental prices are expected to continue their slight correction,” says Barrocas.

Click here to read the entire Brooklyn report, and here for the Queens report.

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