Real estate agent Jordan Silver knew he had a desirable listing on his hands — a charming pre-war West Village one-bedroom apartment, complete with a courtyard.

"It is the most desirable neighborhood, but we saw lines around the block," Silver, a real estate agent with Corcoran, said.

Silver’s TikTok video of the long lines at an open house went viral — more than 600,000 people viewed it. Not that he needed additional help to fill the vacancy — he received eight applications.

The initial asking rent was nearly $3,600 a month. After a bidding war, the winner agreed to pay more than $4,600 each month. Silver attributes the rise in median rents — which hovered around $4,200 in Manhattan this summer — to more people returning to the city after leaving during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There was an insane amount of demand and just not enough supply to meet that demand," Silver said.

Alphonse Gonzales is one of those renters returning to the city. He left Manhattan for his parents' home in New Jersey during the pandemic. He started renting a place in August with his sister in Harlem.

"It was honestly, like, one of the most competitive things I've ever experienced,” Gonzales said. “It was really difficult because I feel like you're up against so many different people.”

Because the rents in the West Village, East Village, Chelsea, SoHo, the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village spiked to 15.5% above the borough’s median asking rent this summer, searches on StreetEasy, a search engine for apartments and real estate in the city, dwindled. This led experts to believe renters are looking elsewhere for a more affordable place to live.

In Queens, one of those neighborhoods is Elmhurst. StreetEasy saw a 32% increase in search volume for listings in the area.

"You literally can get from Elmhurst to the Upper East Side in like about 25 to 30 minutes,” Nan Zhang, a principal broker with N & H Realty Group, said.

Zhang is not surprised. The median rent in Elmhurst is $2,100 per month. He says the neighborhood offers newer luxury high-rises on Queens Boulevard and multi-family homes, which tend to house more affordable and larger units. 

"There's always going to be people who prefer building and some people prefer space. So really it's a check and balance," Zhang said.

Back in Harlem, Gonzales is hopeful he’s found a home for a while — to avoid the stress of hunting for an apartment in Manhattan any time soon.