Viral TikTok video shows a huge crowd at the NYC open house

New York may be the greatest city in the world, but when it comes to finding a place to live, it quickly becomes the worst.

A TikTok video, which has gone viral with around 1.1 million views and almost 93,000 likes, shows the crisis renters now face when looking for a new apartment.

The clip shows an unidentified real estate agent trying to take a selfie with dozens — yes, dozens — of applicants who showed up for a recent open house in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. About 50 people appear to have gathered on the sidewalk in front of the building’s entrance – a crowd so large that not everyone seems to fit in the agent’s photo frame for inclusion.

“New York!” jokes one person caught in the crush while another laughs.

The video caption provides more details.

“NY real estate agent takes selfies with home seekers because ‘he’s never seen so many people at an open house in 17 years,'” wrote the uploader, identified as Sarah by the Independent.

Viewers were quick to share their thoughts, very few of which were positive.

“This is really so devastating,” one wrote, while another said, “I would [have] Just walked away.” But the one who captures the essence best: “I’m scared to look for a new place,” said another.

Renters looking for a new home these days are faced with a brutal market – a far cry from that of last spring, when a number of local tenants snagged offers to live in upgraded units.

All of Manhattan, Brooklyn and parts of Queens — and excluding the Bronx or Staten Island — have fewer than 10,000 units available, according to the latest figures from Douglas Elliman. Additionally, one in five rental units in Manhattan alone has been caught up in a bidding war, driving up asking prices even further and taking units out of certain tenants’ budgets.

February numbers from Douglas Elliman showed that in Manhattan, nearly 20% of all listed rentals went into a bidding war, up sharply from 0.9% in February 2021. In Brooklyn, it was 19% of all rentals, up from 0.7% in the month February earlier – and in north-west Queens, that share rose to 9.3% from 0.3% over the same period.