Remember lower rents in New York City during COVID-19? A new report about high rents suggests any price drops in the city are long gone:

The cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in New York City reached an all-time high for the second month in a row in August, according to Zumper’s latest National Rent Report.

Residents are paying a median amount of $4,500 for a one-bedroom apartment in the city, up 12.8 percent compared to a year earlier and 3.4 percent compared to July. Those renting out two-bedroom apartments are not doing much better. According to Zumper, the median two-bedroom rent reached a record high of $5,100 in August, up 13.3 percent year-over-year and 3.7 percent month-over-month…

But the rent increases in New York mark a resurgence for the city’s market, after rent dropped to a four-year low in January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the median one-bedroom rent was $2,350. Since then, rent has nearly doubled—confirming New York’s rental market to be the most expensive in the nation.

Three quick thoughts in response:

1. Who can afford such prices?
2. Is this just supply and demand where the number of housing units is not keeping up with all the people who want to live in NYC? How do public and private actors continue to contribute to such an expensive housing market?
3. For better or worse, these are the sorts of numbers that people remember when they think about housing prices. Most housing markets in the United States are not Manhattan or San Francisco or Seattle. But people generally know these places are expensive and those costs produce all sorts of reactions. Could a national policy to addressing housing costs, such as hinted at recently by one presidential candidate, address the issue in New York City and in other places?