In a region where rents have skyrocketed since 2020, New Rochelle has pulled off what most New York-area cities can’t: keeping rents virtually flat.

While median rents in New York City and nearby New Jersey markets have jumped 25% or more in just a few years, this Westchester County commuter hub has seen only a 1.6% increase — and even posted a 2% drop from 2020 to 2023, according to Apartment List.

The secret is a decade-long construction blitz.

New Rochelle, a 40-minute commute from Midtown, has added more than 4,500 apartments since 2014, with another 6,500 planned — a 37% boost to its housing supply. That surge has kept competition in check, even as demand from priced-out Manhattanites grows. 5

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“They set the playbook, then private developers could come and play,” Scott Rec

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