The inventory of apartment rentals in the five boroughs is improving and demand may be starting to cool, a report from Jan. 25 shows.

There were 25,865 available rental units in December, 2.6% higher than one year ago, according to economist Kenny Lee of StreetEasy, a real estate website.

Additionally, concessions and discounts are more readily available, as leverage is starting to swing back from landlords to renters, Lee said.

“Discounts and concessions are coming back to the city. In fact, 15% of the listings across the city offered concessions,” Lee said in a Saturday interview with NY1. “That's a good sign for the normalization of the rental market in the city.”

However, Lee thinks that inventory levels are too low for rent prices to fall substantially. Asking rents declined by only 0.2% month-over-month to $3,331 in December, and were up 14% from a year ago.

Plus the barrier to home ownership has increased with the surge in home prices during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee said.

“It's been always tough to buy in the city. But the soaring rents last year, and also the rebound in home prices, made it even tougher for a lot of renters out there to become a homeowner,” Lee said. “It will take 18 years for an average renter to save up enough money for downpayment. That’s six more years compared to the 2021.”

Looking ahead, Lee believes it could get a little easier for city renters in the short-term.

“I think it will be reasonable to expect inventory to increase further in the spring and summer,” Lee said. “That's how the rental market works because of seasonality.”