Manhattan Vacancy Rate Climbs, and Rents Drop 10%

Still, while many companies of all sizes have extended work-from-home arrangements, tech giants, including Facebook and Amazon, have bet big on the city’s future.

Amazon announced on Tuesday that it would create 2,000 jobs in Manhattan for employees who will work out of the Lord & Taylor Building on Fifth Avenue, which it acquired for about $1 billion in March.

But the pandemic has triggered a large outward flow.

Starting in March and picking up steam in June, when restrictions were gradually lifted in New York, moving companies have reported unprecedented business. They are relocating people not only within the city, as rental and sales prices have decreased, but are also packing up for people returning to their childhood homes.

“There are people this year I remember from moving last year that are coming back to us and saying, ‘I’m moving out of the city this time,’” said Zach Horn, head of sales at Metropolis Moving in Brooklyn. “We had moved them three or four times in the city, and this year they are heading home.”

Mr. Miller said apartments will most likely continue to flood the market as people who are struggling financially do not renew their leases.

“Looming evictions and landlord mortgage defaults are going to be significant,” Mr. Miller said.

This month, the state’s chief administrative judge, Lawrence K. Marks, said evictions could restart on Oct. 1 after being on hold since the start of the pandemic.

The market report by Mr. Miller, created with the firm Douglas Elliman, found that rental inventory was at least at an 11-year high in Brooklyn and the highest in Northwest Queens in at least six years. The median rental price in that part of Queens, which includes Long Island City, has dropped to $2,424 a month, down nearly 15 percent from July 2019.