A residence interior at The Astelle in Mott Haven, with the South Bronx skyline framed through the windows.

Research · Mott Haven Renter Index

The Mott Haven Renter Index

An original, sourced read on the South Bronx's new-construction rental market: what it costs, how fast it is growing, and how it compares to the neighborhoods around it.

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Updated June 14, 2026

What this study found

Three findings define the Mott Haven new-construction rental market in 2026, each drawn from public data.

Mott Haven's new-construction median asking rent was about $3,050 a month in 2024, roughly 2.7 percent above the Bronx-wide median of $2,696 and well below Manhattan, where the borough median asking rent reached $4,730 in early 2026.¹
Mott Haven/Melrose remains a tight, heavily renting market: the rental vacancy rate was 1.8 percent in 2024 and the area's real median gross rent across all housing was about $1,170, far below new-construction asking rents, a gap that defines the neighborhood.²
New supply is arriving steadily: New York City issued new certificates of occupancy to 566 residential units in new Mott Haven/Melrose buildings in 2025, adding to a multi-year pipeline that is reshaping the waterfront and the Piano District.²

About this index

What the Renter Index measures, and why

The Mott Haven Renter Index is an original analysis of one neighborhood's rental market, built entirely from public data. It exists because Mott Haven is changing faster than the data most renters see: a wave of new construction has arrived in a place whose published rent statistics still reflect an older, lower-cost housing stock. The result is a market with two very different price layers in the same square mile.

This report compiles the figures that matter for understanding that market: what new buildings ask, how much new housing is being delivered, how the area's broader rent and vacancy numbers compare, and how Mott Haven sits against nearby submarkets. Every number below is sourced to a public dataset or report and linked. Where a figure could not be verified from a public source, it was left out rather than estimated.

Rents

What new construction asks in Mott Haven

New-construction rentals in Mott Haven asked a median of about $3,050 a month in 2024, roughly 2.7 percent above the Bronx-wide median asking rent of $2,696 that year. That places the neighborhood's new buildings at the upper edge of the borough while staying well under the citywide market: the Bronx median asking rent crossed $3,100 for the first time in early 2026, even as the Manhattan median reached $4,730 and Brooklyn rose to $3,750.¹

The new buildings span the full range of household sizes. Units in recent Mott Haven developments run from roughly 500 to about 1,270 square feet, covering studios through two-bedrooms, with advertised rents at individual new buildings stretching from the high $2,000s for a studio to the high $5,000s for a large two-bedroom. The Astelle, a 2025 building at 286 Rider Avenue, sits inside this band: its current two-bedroom collection lists in the low-to-mid $3,000s a month (see the availability page for exact, current pricing), one data point among the neighborhood's newest inventory.¹

By the numbers

Mott Haven rents in context, 2024 to 2026

Mott Haven new-construction and area rent indicators against borough and citywide benchmarks. Each figure is sourced to a public report; see the methodology and sources below.
Indicator	Figure	Source and date
Mott Haven new-construction median asking rent	About $3,050 a month	BrickUnderground, 2024
Bronx median asking rent (same period)	$2,696 a month	BrickUnderground, 2024
Mott Haven/Melrose real median gross rent (all housing)	About $1,170 a month	NYU Furman Center, 2024
Bronx borough median asking rent	Above $3,100 a month	StreetEasy via BrickUnderground, early 2026
Manhattan borough median asking rent (benchmark)	$4,730 a month	StreetEasy via BrickUnderground, early 2026

Primary sources: NYU Furman Center, BrickUnderground, and StreetEasy (see the full list below).

Supply

How much new housing Mott Haven is delivering

Mott Haven is one of the most active development corridors in the Bronx. New York City issued new certificates of occupancy to 566 residential units in new buildings in the Mott Haven/Melrose area in 2025, the count of homes that actually came online that year. That followed a larger 2024 cohort, and the construction pipeline filed with the Department of Buildings points to continued delivery: recent filings include a 450-unit building nearing completion, a 160-unit building, and a 236-unit supportive-housing project, among others along the waterfront and the Bruckner corridor.²

This supply matters because it is arriving into a tight market. The Mott Haven/Melrose rental vacancy rate was 1.8 percent in 2024, well under the level most economists consider a balanced market, and the area is overwhelmingly a renting one: the 2024 homeownership rate was 6.1 percent, against 32.7 percent citywide. New construction is, in effect, the main source of additional supply in a neighborhood with very little turnover in its existing stock.²

Supply at a glance

566: new residential units received certificates of occupancy in Mott Haven/Melrose in 2025.NYU Furman Center, 2025
1.8%: rental vacancy rate in Mott Haven/Melrose in 2024, a notably tight market.NYU Furman Center, 2024
6.1%: homeownership rate in Mott Haven/Melrose in 2024, against 32.7 percent citywide, an overwhelmingly renting neighborhood.NYU Furman Center, 2024

In context

How Mott Haven compares to nearby submarkets

Mott Haven's appeal in the current market is relative value. As Manhattan and Brooklyn set records, demand cascades outward to neighborhoods that were historically the lower-cost alternative, and those neighborhoods price up in turn. Mott Haven sits at the leading edge of that cascade: close enough to Manhattan for a sub-30-minute commute, but priced a full tier below the boroughs across the river.

Against three reference points, the gap is concrete. A new-construction budget that rents a full two-bedroom in Mott Haven generally clears only a studio or a smaller older one-bedroom in Williamsburg or Long Island City, where one-bedroom averages ran well above the new Mott Haven two-bedroom asking rents in 2026. The trade is space and price against the established nightlife and shorter rides of those Queens and Brooklyn submarkets.

Side by side

Mott Haven against nearby submarkets, 2026

How Mott Haven's new-construction market compares to two nearby submarkets renters weigh against it. Figures are sourced to public 2026 rent reports; see the sources below.
What you compare	Mott Haven	Williamsburg	Long Island City
What a new-construction budget rents	A full new two-bedroom	A studio or smaller one-bedroom	A studio or smaller one-bedroom
Typical one-bedroom rent, 2026	Neighborhood median asking rent about $3,050	One-bedroom average about $4,850	One-bedroom average about $4,436
Commute to Midtown	6 train, about 25 minutes	L and G trains, roughly 25 to 35 minutes	7 and E trains, roughly 15 to 20 minutes

Sources: BrickUnderground, RentHop, and RentCafe 2026 rent reports (see the full list below).

What is driving the market

Why Mott Haven is moving

Three forces explain the neighborhood's trajectory. The first is transit: Mott Haven's Third Avenue-138th Street station is served by the 6 train at all times as an express stop on the Lexington Avenue line, putting Grand Central and Midtown roughly 25 minutes away, a commute on par with much pricier neighborhoods. The second is the citywide squeeze: with every borough at or near record rents and Manhattan inventory at multi-year lows, renters are searching wider, and a sub-30-minute neighborhood priced a tier below the river reads as value.⁶

The third is new supply itself. A decade of rezoning and development along the Harlem River waterfront and the Bruckner corridor has turned former industrial blocks into a corridor of new rental buildings, the area sometimes marketed as the Piano District. That construction is what makes a modern doorman two-bedroom available in Mott Haven at all; without it, the neighborhood's published rent and vacancy figures would describe a market with almost no new inventory to rent.

Methodology

How this index was built

This report compiles published figures from public sources. It does not scrape listing sites, use any paid data feed, or estimate values that a source did not state. Every figure is reproduced as its source reported it, with the source and date noted. The notes below explain what each figure means and the limits of the data.

Sources used: Area housing indicators (median gross rent, rental vacancy, homeownership rate, new units certified) come from the NYU Furman Center's neighborhood profile for Mott Haven/Melrose, which draws on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and New York City administrative data. New-construction asking rents and the borough and citywide rent benchmarks come from published 2024 to 2026 market reports by BrickUnderground and StreetEasy. Nearby-submarket rent figures come from RentHop and RentCafe 2026 rent research. Transit facts come from the MTA and public station records.
Geography and dates: Two geographies appear in this report and are kept distinct. Area indicators describe Mott Haven/Melrose, the Bronx Community District 1 statistical area the Furman Center reports on, and carry the year the source assigned. New-construction asking rents describe recently completed market-rate buildings in the Mott Haven section specifically and reflect 2024 to 2026 listing data. The two are not the same measure: area median gross rent reflects all existing housing, including older and regulated units, while new-construction asking rent reflects only the newest market-rate inventory. The large gap between them is a real feature of the neighborhood, not a data error.
Limitations: Asking rent is advertised rent, not rent paid, and figures that are net effective fold in free-month concessions; both are noted where a source flagged them. Market reports differ in method and timing, so figures from different sources are not perfectly comparable and are presented as each source reported them. This index covers aggregate market and housing-stock data only. It makes no claim about any individual building's full inventory beyond the single sourced data point cited for context, and it draws no inference about who lives in the neighborhood.
Updates and review: The Renter Index is dated and will be revised as new public data is released. Before public publication this report is to receive a methodology review by counsel and to carry the named bylines of its authors; until then it is published as a methodology-complete working analysis with every figure sourced.

Sources

Reviewed by The Astelle editorial teamUpdated June 14, 2026

A residence living room at The Astelle, one new building in the Mott Haven rent data, opening onto a private balcony.

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