Hoboken Had Highest Rent Increases Of All Cities In NY And NJ: Study

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken has the fastest rising rents in the New York City metro area, a new report says — even when compared with New York City itself. RELATED: Hoboken Hires 2 Social Workers To Help With Homelessness

Zumper, a real estate website, looked at last month's average rents in cities in New Jersey and New York state, then compared them to the rents a year earlier.

They said that they found that:

• Hoboken had the fastest growing rent of all towns and cities studied, climbing 20.7 percent on average since this time last year.
• Bayonne and Union City rents experienced the largest monthly growth rates, both up around 6 percent from the prior month.
• While New York City had the highest median rents, with one-bedrooms priced at $4,240, Hoboken was the second highest, at $3,560. Jersey City was third, with the average rent $3,130.

RELATED: Hoboken Tenants Say Landlords Are Illegally Pressuring Them To Leave

The report drew some attention from across the river.

"New Jersey Rent Surge Means It Makes Less Sense to Leave NYC," opined Bloomberg in a headline.

But Are They Legal?

But New Jersey has laws governing rent increases for all buildings.

It doesn't matter if a building is new or old, and whether it's under a local rent control law or not — by state law, landlords of apartment buildings in New Jersey must keep rent increases to an amount that's not considered "unconscionable or unreasonable." However, it may end up left to individual court judges to determine if a rent is fair, after a tenant stops paying the increase.

Hoboken also has rent control laws that apply to many buildings (including some that are newer; learn more here).

Recently, the city of Hoboken has had to send letters to four different landlords saying their rent increases violated local law or were unreasonable. But does it help if there's no real enforcement or timely consequence?

Tenants have told Patch that their landlords continued to pass along high increases, even after the city said they were charging too much — forcing tenants to decide whether to fight in court.

Last year, for the first time, the city of Hoboken hired two social workers to help with homelessness.

The Least Expensive

So which city is the next Hoboken? According to Zumper:

• East Orange was the most affordable city in the study, with rent priced at $1,480.
• Newark second with median rent at $1,490.
• Kingston, N.Y. was third with rent at $1,550.

A full discussion of the study can be found here: https://www.zumper.com/apartme...

READ MORE: What's The Latest With 'Unconscionable' Rent Increases?