State of the rental market

The problem is your expectations are unreasonable. You're not going to find a 'steal'. At best, you will find prices that are far more reasonable than those of the past couple of years. You might want to consider checking directly with rental management companies to find listings that don't require a broker.

here's the rub: it's going to take more time. don't let the no's discourage you---at least not too much. everyone i know with a good place spent a lot of time looking and a lot of that time despondent. that's what the landlords/brokers are counting on.

think of the numbers game here: in one week, what percentage of available units do you think you've seen?

make it a game which you will win if you have the patience.

good luck.

I think asking rents for UWS (south 90th) family sized apartments (2.5/3 br) are still unreasonable and overpriced ($7-10k). And the places are NOT great!
TripleP - I agree with you that asking prices are still much higher than I would have expected. I'm not sure what to think about this summer. There's a lot of inventory sitting. My hunch is that if places sit through the summer you're going to see major slashes come Aug/Sept. But, for now, it's still very pricey.

pricing will pick up with the influx of new grads.

not happening. its actually the opposite..when all the new grads dont show up this june, we are going to see further erosion in the rental and for sale markets

Here's a bit of what I've been seeing - hope it's helpful:
• Musical Chairs: Making up for the lower volume of incoming students and employees this summer are existing New Yorkers moving in search for greater value. Whether looking to get more for their existing budget or lowering this budget altogether, everyone seems to be moving. I’m seeing many tenants moving in very close proximity to their current dwellings to take advantage of landlord incentives across the street.
• Bend With the Wind, Grasshoppa’: Times like these require of all of us to be flexible and adjust to changing circumstances. Some landlords are following suit. Archstone and Related Properties (Caledonia, Sierra, One Union Square South) are offering tenants the ability to upgrade or downgrade within any of their properties with only 30 days’ notice. The former even allows tenants to get out of their leases free and clear should job loss occur.
• Compete, Repeat: Co-op and condo owners must now compete with traditional rental buildings for tenants. As such, apartments in these traditionally out-of-reach buildings are priced at or below their luxury-rental equivalents, tempting many to go through the necessary board approval process and extra fees.

tripleP, i'm with macro_m on this one. when do you need to move in? the grads aren't coming, and many people who are unemployed will find it expedient to leave their apartments when their leases expire, typically July-late September. This may be a great time for the summer renter, unless landlords overreact and warehouse, but I doubt they can afford to.

good luck.

We should note that rental management companies do have a lot of inventory and appear willing to negotiate, but we are (so far) being fairly specific about our location and none of the Archstone buildings, for example, are in the right place.

Truth be told, we are being particular... but that's because this will be our home for (hopefully) a few years and we are no longer willing to accept the same quality we would have when we were younger.

ColumbiaCounty - your advice is well taken. Patience is key. Fortuately, one of us is a grad student who has LOTS of time to see apartments all day long and will hopefully come up with a winner.

remember that each person you see (landlord, broker) who doesn't have what you want has a vested interest in convincing you that you are wrong, unreasonable, and will never find anything with your lousy attitude. it is really hard to take on that kind of energy without, despite everything, starting to believe it. i would agree with squid above that you're not likely to find a steal but you are likely to find much better overall value than has been available for at least the last five years.

"no freshly minted MBA or JD (and certainly not a BA!), will be able to afford any of the apartments we are looking at on their base salary alone (assuming no guarantors)."

They're not. They're doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling up with roommates. This is how a landlord can easily get $6000/month for a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side: four freshly-minted MBAs, each paying only $1500.

Someone I know just picked up a small 2 bedroom on E 92 for $2k.

Our current lease is up end of June, but we have started looking in case we find a co-op and have to go through an application process and because we would like to move mid-June if possible.

doesn't hurt to see if your present landlord is willing to go month to month with you...

I agree. I think you may find lower prices the later you get into summer.

UBS has offered $15K to new grads to defer their start date to '10.

And this is happening at law firms to experienced associates:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/nyregion/13bigcity.html?_r=1

TripleP, I am in a similar situation and will be looking for a studio or 1-bedroom on the UWS. My lease is up in July but my landlord is letting us go month-to-month. I decided to follow uwsmom's advice and wait until September to move--hopefully prices will go down some more after August is over. I know you may not have that option, but I hope you'll keep us updated on how the search goes!

TripleP:

If you want....email me offline, I may have an idea for you......cpwsoon @ gmail .com

Triple P,
We were in the same situation as you describe, had wanted to buy and looked at a lot of places on the UWS. Decided to put buying on hold in January and move to a new rental to get more space and light. We were in a very affordable but small one bed-room on Riverside Drive. We looked actively for three months, and did not find any 'steals', despite what you read in the NYTimes, NY Mag, etc. Brokers did not seem flexible with fees, and rents were not really negotiable. We did an exhaustive search of management companies and found a great, 800 square foot one bedroom on 85th Street through Argo Corp. No fee and they are very professional. We just moved on May 1 and love our new place. Good luck!

"They're not. They're doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling up with roommates. This is how a landlord can easily get $6000/month for a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side: four freshly-minted MBAs, each paying only $1500."

Maybe undergrads, but MBAs are mostly too old for that stuff. THe typical MBA graduates at 29 (from a top 20 school). No way anyone I knew from b-school would move in with 3 other people to a two bedroom.

I would also add that there are still more price declines on my streeteasy alerts than price increases. I have noticed certian big landlords like Rockrose raising prices across the board in eraly april only to lower them again on the exact same units at the end of the month. I think since they can NORMALLy do this they are trying it. If you are not in a hurry, keep looking.

spring and summer is always a LLs field day...since prices are somewhat lower at their busiest time....fall and winter will definitely be much lower rent.

Are managing agents any use in finding rentals in condos/coops?

Never easy to find a 3br+ rental in the exact location you want on UWS for what you consider reasonable. I went mad trying to find such a beast in summer of '05 (granted market was tighter, but there were actually more rentals in my targeted bldgs then). Compound that with my partner's non-negotiable points (not many), there were exactly 2 apts in the end that we were okay with and we went with the cheaper one.

Some brokers are still acting like is 2006. We went to see an apt rental and I asked nicely if the fees were negotiable. The broker looked at me like I was an alien. She said NO, we normally charge 15% and now is only 1 month. I think opening one door is worth a few thousand dollars is crazy. We got out of the elevator and she stormed out and never said anything to us.

There are still decent apts out there for ok prices but make sure you work with a nice broker.

hofo: I think the best strategy is to never say anything about what you will pay. If you view an apt that you want, and the ask is $5,000. Say you think $4,000 is fair. Then you lay it all out...I will pay $4,000, with 1 month free, 1 month security, no broker fee, $3,000 moving allowance. I think you lay it all out at once after you make the decision that you may like it. No point in letting the broker know anything early.

Moving allowance? Is that really something that you can negotiate? I've never heard of that outside of corporate relocations...

I have no idea...just throwing in the kitchen sink. Point is, ask for everything at once, then negotiate to the middle. Ask for an itunes card, or Broadway tickets.

Here's one we just missed - it's rented. But look at the concessions the owner made to the renter:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/rental/445250-rental-500-west-43rd-street-clinton-new-york

Just wanted to thank everyone for the very good advice on this post. We have now identified a few apartments that would be perfect, but are currently out of our target price range... and we are waiting it out to see if the owners want to negotiate with us as their apartments remain on the market. While we have not yet asked our management company for a month-to-month lease, we are going to approach them with this request if our search doesn't yield much in the next two weeks.

Great. FYi, my streeteasy daily email still has price cuts outnumbering increases like 10 to 1, so...several have been vacant for a while. A bit lower price range, but you should moniter to see if units are vacant for a while on Streeteasy - I bet that would make negotiating easier.

"They're not. They're doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling up with roommates. This is how a landlord can easily get $6000/month for a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side: four freshly-minted MBAs, each paying only $1500."

Stuytown is actually advertising on campuses for this very reason. A friend lives down the hall from one such apartment, and they find garbage outside the door all the time now.

and stuytown is going to get worse because their rents have dropped from $3100 to $2300..LLs are negotiating, be patient and walk away if they refuse your reasonable requests...they did it to every renter for the last three years...now it's our turn.