Manhattan rents hit a median of $5,295 a month in June, and Brooklyn's reached $4,350, both records, according to the Corcoran Group. Median means the midpoint: half of all tracked rentals priced higher, half lower. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who ran on easing that burden, is now fielding sharp criticism from conservatives who argue his immigration stance has worsened the city's supply crunch.
The immigration demand argument
The critics' core claim is arithmetic. More people, same number of apartments, higher prices. Conservative radio host Andrew Wilkow wrote on X that the city "welcomed hundreds of thousands of illegals," that this put pressure on housing supply, and that shortages create price increases. Representative Brandon Gill of Texas wrote that young Americans are competing for housing with "millions of foreign arrivals."
Two Federal Reserve bank research papers, both carrying the standard disclaimer that findings do not represent official Fed positions, offered some academic footing. A 2003 paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that an immigration inflow equal to 1% of a city's population corresponded to roughly a 1% increase in average rents. A paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, published in March, found that a 1% increase in illegal immigrants working in a given area corresponded to a 1.4% increase in rental prices, because localities did not build enough housing to match population growth.
The city's own data adds context without settling the question. About 38% of New York City residents were born outside the United States, per the most recent available figures. The New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey shows that foreign-born renter households occupied about 40% of city rentals as of 2023, up from 37% in 2020. Neither dataset distinguishes legal from illegal immigration status, so the share attributable to undocumented residents is unknown.
What Mamdani has done, and what critics say about it
Mamdani campaigned on three planks: freeze rent increases for stabilized tenants, build 200,000 new affordable homes, and expand tenant protections. Since taking office, he has frozen rents on rent-stabilized leases, released a broader housing plan targeting 400,000 affordable units built or preserved, and moved to expand rental vouchers.
Critics read those moves as incomplete at best. Red State writer Bonchie noted on X that Mamdani "froze the rent," then rents hit an all-time high, vacancy rates reached their highest point since COVID, and Mamdani proposed a 20% pay raise for himself. A sharper structural argument holds that rent freezes push market-rate prices higher for apartments outside the stabilized system and reduce property owners' incentive to maintain units they cannot price at market.
The supply-side prescription
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine offered a different diagnosis. He recommended rezoning neighborhoods to allow more homebuilding, investing in affordable housing development, and cutting construction regulations to increase supply. Conservative lawyer Mike Davis responded by asking about deportations instead.
The White House has claimed that deportations caused rental costs to fall in the South and Southwest, a claim disputed by critics who attribute those declines to broader market conditions. A March 2024 academic study found that deportations could raise overall housing prices by harming the construction industry, though the authors acknowledged that reduced demand from fewer residents could offset some of that pressure. Mamdani's office did not respond to a request for comment.