Broker speak: true or false?

hilarious.

do you really need us to answer this?

Not really UD--just looking for a few laughs this morning...

Buy now or be priced out forever.

sign a two-year lease or be priced out forever.

Those statements aren't exactly lies, and they might not even be wrong. They are just totally misleading.

"... next summer, it'll be back to business as usual--no negotiations and tenant paying brokers' fees."
Overstated, but not altogether false. Once asking rents adjust to a changed market - as they eventually will - there shouldn't be as much need for negotiation or OP-type concessions.

"... every place you saw tonight will be rented by the end of August."
No landlord wants to carry inventory into September, because by that point the peak moving season is over. So a high proportion of the properties being shown now will in fact be rented by 9/1.... but at what price, and with what additional incentives?

By Halloween the rental business volume drops noticeably even in non-recession times.

Therefore, if your goal is an acceptable apartment at the best possible price, I believe you are more likely to get it after November 1.

If your goal is to move into the place you really think is special, then as soon as you find that place, you should rent it, asking for concessions if none are offered up front. (If you think it's special, chances are others do, too, so you may find no concessions are available.)

I am a bear about this economy so I don't think next summer will be business as usual. I will be delighted to be found wrong.

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

west81st, i don't think asking prices are moving that much, although they are moving. concessions are getting the deals done. next year when leases are up for renewal, the process will begin again, particularly for those sturdy souls who have no problems telling the landlord to go to hell and are willing to pack up and move. oh for the mobility of youth.

there are also different segments of the rental market. i don't think there are sufficient numbers of people looking for high-end rentals. it can take many, many months for a large new building to rent all of its units, and we have several new ones on the market and a number of additional ones coming on. not to mention high-end rentals in the condos. even with the financial sector doing better, we simply don't have the influx of young professionals, and young grads with jobs whose parents are willing to subsidize NYC rent. and we have people who have leases expiring who may be unemployed or be far less well off and thus wish to lower expenses. in the higher-end market at least, i don't think the lls have any chance of not carrying significant inventory into the fall.

As someone who has been involve in rent searches in the price range of 4k to 5k, the market where I looked, village, west village, lower 5th, Soho,is very limited and good apartments-light, small buildings, townhouses, space and location, are snapped within 30 days. It depends what one is looking for. Alternatively if you search SE for purchase of 1.5 mil to 2 mil in downtown area, again you notice that good (I know it is a subjective word) apartments are non existence or sold. I submitted 2 bids at asking (they were correctly priced at 1000 per sqf) and lost both. So maybe the market is dead but on a personal level, some segments with the correct pricing are extremely alive. You guys thought that bonuses will disappear and guess what- they are alive too.

"(they were correctly priced at 1000 per sqf)"

Really? Most luxury Manhattan rentals rent at between $40 and $45 psf, so you must be rich.

007, prices have been by far the stickiest thus far in prime downtown areas. guess what, the NYC residents who work in finance are, by themselves, unable to maintain these market prices. we are so happy for those people who are receiving bonuses as a result of taxpayer largesse, but unfortunately that has not spilled into other areas, whose employees have also contributed, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale I'm quite certain you'd argue, to the unprecedented run-up in housing prices.

and, actually, i've been seeing quite a few "good" apartments downtown that aren't moving in the $1.7-2mm range.

Steve - that was for apartments for sale, not for rental. $1,000 sf for a rental would be one nice rental.

Did the broker they would all be rented by the end of next August?