House sitting in New York City
Field report · updated 2026-07-29 · live corpus
For pet parents · what actually happened
Drew 2+ applicants sitters
92%
about 9 in 10 · 2+ applications in 48h · n=785 · ±2pp
43 measured cities run 22–95% · median 77%
Filled to the cap in 48h
56%
filled to the five-application cap · each watched from zero applications
speed, not eventual success
Sits provably completed
1,877
in the last 12 months · at least 5,498 since 2016 · each required a chosen sitter
by year (floors): 2023 884 · 2024 1,178 · 2025 1,772
Open sits5451 homes
Applicants / sit3.9median 1 across cities
Median stay7 nights59% run a week+
Posting lead4 wkhalf 18–66d out
Gapless days395 back-to-back sits · 30 Jul
Floors, not verdicts — fast-filling listings escape measurement, and these are 48-hour rates: a speed gauge; many sits fill after the window. · How we measure →
Plan your dates in New York Cityfair
Pick your window. We chain the open sits that hand over cleanly inside it — computed right here, nothing sent anywhere.
The open listings chain into 39 consecutive housed days across 5 back-to-back sits beginning 30 Jul — fair, against the cities we track.
30 Jul5 handovers · 39 nights7 Sep
Remove that chain and 37 days remain — 2 sitters could live here at once.
todayopen sits · next 90 days · 5 days with nothing open+90 d
Supply by start month
Hosts post about 4 weeks ahead (half between 18–66 days) — for far-out dates, most options don't exist yet.
Listing? Posting about 4 weeks out is normal here.
For sitters · competition right nowcutthroat
Open New York City listings average 3.9 applicants, and 7% currently have none at all.
Stays & pets
The median stay is 7 nights; 59% run a week or longer.
≤3 nights 18%4–7 35%8–14 28%15–28 15%29+ 4%
Plan around the animals first — they are the job.
dogs only 45%dogs + cats 8%cats only 41%other / no pets 6%
How New York City compares
Sitter competition (cutthroat)96th percentile
Open supply (below the median)40th percentile
Chainability (fair)32nd percentile
Percentile rank among the 26 tracked cities with meaningful supply. Competition reads sitter-side: a higher percentile means more applicants per open listing — harder for sitters, busier for owners.
Common questions
Will my pet-sitting listing get applicants in New York City?
Measured, not guessed: of 785 New York City listings watched from zero applications, 92% received at least two applications within 48 hours, and 56% reached the five-application cap. Both are floors — fast-filling listings are the ones most likely to escape measurement — and both are 48-hour rates: listings often keep drawing applications after the window we count.
Do house sits actually get filled in New York City?
Yes — at least 5,498 sits have provably completed in New York City since 2016, 1,877 of them ending in the last 12 months. A completion requires a chosen sitter, so every one had at least one real application. These are floors from listing histories, and they cannot be turned into a fill rate: sits that went unfilled leave no trace, so there is no denominator.
How many sitters apply to a house sit in New York City?
Open listings currently average 3.9 applicants, 7% have none yet, and only 78% have three or more — snapshots across 54 live listings at last refresh, not final tallies.
How far in advance are New York City house sits posted?
The median listing appears about 4 weeks before its start date; half post between 18 and 66 days out.
How long is a typical house sit in New York City?
The median stay is 7 nights, and 59% of open sits run a week or longer.
Can you live in New York City full-time on house sits?
Today's board chains into 39 consecutive housed days across 5 back-to-back sits beginning 30 Jul. That is one bookable itinerary from live listings — it moves daily as sits are taken and posted.
Compare markets
How these figures are computed
Open sits — live listings with a current or future date window; a home with several windows counts once per window.
Applicants — the count reported on each open listing at last refresh.
Posting lead — days between a listing first appearing and its start date, median across open listings.
Gapless days — the longest bookable run of consecutive covered days assembled from open sits beginning within the next 90 days: no overlaps, each sit starting the day the previous one ends.
Judgment words (“cutthroat”, “fair”) are percentiles against the 26 cities in this corpus with meaningful supply — never editorial.
Full methodology — how these are measured, and what they cannot say.