By: Ariella Haviv

(KEWISH VOICE NEWS) The Manhattan rental market surged toward record-breaking levels in the final weeks before socialist Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City’s next mayor, underscoring the deep economic contradictions awaiting the incoming administration. As The New York Post reported on Thursday, the median rent for new Manhattan leases in October soared to $4,600 per month—a staggering 7.1% jump from the previous year and 1.1% higher than September, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman.

That figure marks the third-highest median rent ever recorded in Manhattan, disappointing tenants and housing advocates who traditionally anticipate seasonal relief in the autumn months. Instead, the city’s housing costs continue to escalate—defying expectations and challenging the core promises of a newly elected mayor who rose to power on a platform of affordability and economic justice.

According to the information provided in The New York Post report, the surge in rental prices is not confined to Manhattan’s glittering skyline. Across the East River, Brooklyn registered a median rent of $3,850, reflecting a 6.9% increase year-over-year and—like Manhattan—the third-highest level in the borough’s history.

In Northwest Queens, which includes key neighborhoods such as Astoria, Long Island City, and Sunnyside, the situation is equally dire. There, median rents hit $3,598, representing a 7.4% annual increase, the sharpest among the city’s outer boroughs.

Despite soaring costs, demand has remained unexpectedly strong. As The New York Post report noted, apartment hunters were highly active throughout October, a period typically associated with cooling demand. The tight housing inventory—a long-standing feature of New York’s real estate landscape—has only intensified competition.

Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, told Bloomberg that the city’s rental market remains “white-hot,” defying predictions of a slowdown. “You can’t have rising rent prices and leasing activity if there’s an exodus from the city—it shows just the opposite,” he said, emphasizing that fears of wealthy New Yorkers fleeing post-election are overstated. “Housing affordability is getting worse, not better.”

Mamdani’s rise to City Hall occurred amid this economic turbulence. As The New York Post report detailed, his campaign leaned heavily on promises to address affordability head-on, including proposals to freeze rent-stabilized apartments, expand free bus services, and open city-owned grocery stores to alleviate the burden of rising consumer costs.

Renters now make up roughly two-thirds of New York City’s population, and with wages failing to keep pace with rent growth, housing emerged as one of the most decisive issues of the election. In fact, an NBC News exit poll cited by The New York Post found that 72% of New York voters identified housing costs as a major problem—a sentiment echoed in cities nationwide.

That anxiety proved decisive in shaping political outcomes beyond the five boroughs. As The New York Post report noted, Democrats in other key states, including Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, also clinched victories after campaigning on affordability and cost-of-living concerns.

In New York, however, Mamdani’s socialist platform—rooted in redistribution, tenant protections, and higher taxes on the wealthy—has stirred trepidation on Wall Street and among property developers, who fear that punitive taxation and regulatory expansion could destabilize investment confidence.

As The New York Post reported, financial leaders across Manhattan’s real estate and banking sectors have been quietly preparing for potential policy shocks from the new administration. Many fear that Mamdani’s tax proposals—aimed at funding public housing and transit initiatives—could trigger an exodus of high-income residents and corporations, reminiscent of earlier flight patterns in the 1970s and 2020s.

Yet, for now, data does not support that scenario. “There is no exodus coming out of New York,” Miller reiterated in comments highlighted by The New York Post. “We’re seeing strong leasing and purchase activity. It’s the paradox of prosperity—people are still willing to pay extraordinary rents to live here, even as affordability collapses.”

The city’s luxury rental sector further amplifies that paradox. In October, median rents in Manhattan’s top-tier properties skyrocketed to $11,995, marking a jaw-dropping 20% increase year-over-year. As The New York Post report observed, this bifurcation—where the city simultaneously faces both record luxury demand and deepening working-class strain—illustrates the growing inequities that will define Mamdani’s tenure.

Central to Mamdani’s campaign was his so-called YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard”) agenda, which seeks to transform the city’s housing landscape through aggressive public development. He pledged to build 200,000 new affordable, union-constructed housing units, financed by a mix of public funds and taxes on luxury real estate.

The plan—ambitious even by New York standards—positions Mamdani at odds with entrenched bureaucratic norms and long-standing zoning barriers. As The New York Post reported, the mayor-elect is expected to inherit new housing-related ballot measures approved by voters on Election Day, initiatives that aim to streamline construction approvals and cut through the city’s notorious red tape.

Those measures were championed by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who faced fierce opposition from the City Council but ultimately pushed them through. The reforms will transfer certain decision-making powers from local boards and agencies to the mayor’s office, granting the incoming administration unprecedented leverage in accelerating development timelines.

Yet Mamdani’s critics—particularly among centrist Democrats and real estate leaders—question whether he will use these tools effectively. “He talks about revolution, but revolution takes competence,” one political strategist told The New York Post. “Building affordable housing in New York requires negotiation, not ideology.”

New York’s housing crisis has long defied simple categorization. As The New York Post has frequently noted, the city’s supply shortage is driven by a complex web of zoning restrictions, construction costs, and political inertia, not merely by landlords or market forces.

While Mamdani’s progressive platform emphasizes public ownership and rent control, analysts warn that such policies—if applied broadly—could further constrain private development, worsening the very shortage they aim to resolve. Developers, faced with diminishing profit margins, may simply build elsewhere.

“The danger,” one industry executive told The New York Post, “is that well-intentioned socialism collides with economic reality. You can’t build your way out of a housing crisis if no one wants to build under your rules.”

At the same time, advocates argue that incremental reforms have failed for decades, leaving New Yorkers with stagnant wages and rising rents. For Mamdani, who hails from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the moral imperative outweighs the market logic. “Housing is a human right,” he often declared on the campaign trail—a refrain that resonated deeply with younger voters priced out of the city’s housing ladder.

As Mamdani prepares to assume office, the data paints a sobering picture. The New York Post reported that housing costs continue to climb faster than incomes, and with inflation showing little sign of cooling, the affordability crisis is tightening its grip on the city’s middle and lower classes.

For all his ideological confidence, the new mayor faces an unenviable challenge: balancing the aspirations of social reform with the realities of economic gravity. The success of his administration may well hinge on whether he can convert rhetoric into results without alienating investors or accelerating the city’s fiscal vulnerabilities.

In the short term, New Yorkers can expect more of the same. The October data, as detailed by The New York Post, reveals a housing market operating at full throttle—with demand outpacing supply and rents testing record highs across every borough.

Whether Zohran Mamdani’s progressive vision can arrest or reverse that trajectory remains uncertain. But as one New York Post columnist quipped, “If he can make rent affordable in Manhattan, he won’t just be mayor—he’ll be a miracle worker.”