Queens ranked among the highest in rental activity among cities in the northeastern United States during the third quarter of 2025, which is usually the peak quarter of rental activity, according to a report by RentCafe.
Rental engagement data from RentCafe’s site found Queens to have the second-highest Rental Engagement Tracker (REnT) score in the region, at 73.4, trailing only Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which had a score of 87.58. The REnT scores are determined from data based on the millions of interactions on RentCafe’s website, with availability of apartments, listing views, apartments saved as favorites and saved personalized searches for each city factoring in to the scores.
The 73.4 REnT score for Queens during the months from July to September of 2025 also ranks 19th in all of the United States, up 16 spots from the third quarter of 2024. The area experienced significant increases in availabilities, page views, favorites and saved searches over this period of time.
Year-over-year, Queens had a 44% jump in availability, which was the 48th-highest in the nation. There was also a 42% boost in page views, ranking 13th in the United States. Both favorites and saved searches had 60% increases in the third quarter of 2025, with favorites ranking 62nd and saved searches 56th in their respective categories. All these boosts contributed to Queens’ high regional ranking and big jump on the national level from 35th to 19th place.
Queens was not the only New York City borough to be ranked among the top 150 areas across the country in rental activity by RentCafe during the third quarter of 2025. The Bronx is right behind Queens, in 20th place, with a REnT score of 73.25. Additionally, Brooklyn is ranked 126th, with a REnT score of 54.88.
When it came to calculating the REnT score of each city, the availability rate score was determined by dividing the total vacant units at the city level in the most recent quarter by the total number of units, with the lowest rate receiving the maximum of 40 points. The score for page views was reached by dividing the total number of page views for the most recent quarter at the city level by the total renter population, with the maximum score being 30 points. Favorites were scored up to 15 points by dividing the total rental listings added to favorites by the total renter population. Lastly, saved searches, which also had a maximum score of 15 points, were calculated by dividing the total number of saved searches for the quarter by the total renter population in the city.
