StreetEasy - Apartments in NYC

Review by eFreeware

StreetEasy is a free Android app from StreetEasy, Inc. that puts New York City property listings in your pocket, covering rentals and sales across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the rest of the five boroughs. The developer describes it as the most complete database of NYC apartments, and for anyone hunting in that market, that is the pitch: one place to look at what is available, what it costs and how long it has been sitting there.

The case for installing it is straightforward. If your search is confined to New York City, the app is built around that single market rather than spread across the country, so the filters, building pages and history features all speak to the questions NYC renters and buyers actually ask. It has been available since 2014 and was updated in October 2026, so it is an established tool rather than a new experiment.

Search that understands New York addresses

The core of the app is search, and it takes several forms. You can look for apartments to rent or buy, including condos, co-ops and no fee listings, then narrow the results by price, by neighborhood, or by building name. Typing something like Chelsea or a specific tower tells the app where to focus, which matters in a city where the difference between two adjacent blocks can change everything about a listing.

From there, the filters go beyond location. Filters cover amenities like elevators, doormen, pet policies and in-unit laundry. Anyone who has spent an afternoon clicking through listings that fail on one of those points will see the value in setting them upfront, and the combination of neighborhood plus amenity filters is where the app does its most useful work.

Results are not just addresses. Each listing can show property history, how long the unit has been on the market, and a link through to the building page, where you can see what else is available or has recently sold in the same building. That building-level view is the part I would lean on most: it gives context that a single listing cannot, and it is the kind of detail that rewards a careful searcher.

Photos, floor plans and getting in touch

Presentation is handled with full-screen listing photos and floor plans, so you can look at a layout properly before deciding whether it is worth a visit. Floor plans in particular are a practical addition in a market where square footage is often vague and a photograph alone rarely tells you how a space actually flows.

When something looks promising, you can email or call agents directly from the app rather than copying details into another program. That keeps the whole loop, from browsing to making contact, inside one tool, which is a sensible design for anyone working through a shortlist on a phone.

The other connective feature is account sync. Saved searches, listings and buildings carry over automatically to your desktop account, so a search started on the phone can continue on a computer without rebuilding it. For a long apartment hunt that stretches over weeks, that continuity is more useful than any single filter.

What it costs and what it asks of you

The app is free to download and does not offer in-app purchases, so there is no paid tier to weigh. It does contain ads, which is the trade-off for that free access. Beyond that, the main requirement is simply that your interest lies in New York City; the listings are drawn from the five boroughs, and that is the market the app is built to serve.

That is worth knowing before you start saving things you expect to find again on a different device.

Getting the most from a search

The most effective approach is to set your filters before you start browsing rather than after. Price, neighborhood and the amenities you cannot live without, such as a doorman or in-unit laundry, will cut the list down to something manageable, and the results you keep will be ones you can act on.

Once a listing catches your eye, use the property history and the days-on-market figure before you get attached. A unit that has been listed for a while tells a different story from one that appeared yesterday, and the building page can show you comparable units and recent sales that put the asking price in context. That is the kind of homework the app makes easy to do from a phone.

Listings can be saved and synced with a desktop account. Keeping a shortlist that survives the switch between phone and computer is the difference between a scattered search and one you can actually follow through on.

A focused tool for the NYC market

StreetEasy does one thing and does it for one city. The search filters, the building pages, the history and the agent contact tools all point at the same goal: finding an apartment in New York City, whether you are renting, buying or keeping an eye on what your building is doing. It is free, ad-supported and has no purchases to consider, which keeps the decision simple.

The app has over a million installs and a 3.2 average from 5,178 ratings, a score that suggests a useful tool with room for improvement rather than a runaway favorite. I would treat it as a research companion: the place to filter, compare and shortlist before you pick up the phone.

If your search is in the five boroughs, this is a reasonable thing to install. StreetEasy suits renters and buyers focused on New York City's five boroughs.

What's new in version 3.127.1

* We polished a few things, fixed some other small bugs, and made some performance improvements. Continue sending us your awesome feedback by emailing us at [email protected] - we're listening!