Better to wait until Mid-September to sign a lease?

In my humble opinion you would be better off waiting if you can.

Landlords know that historically, the rental business dies on Halloween. Whether that will happen in wacked-out 2009 I don't know, but if they're offering concessions now, and they are, I expect the pace to accelerate.

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

I concur with Fluter and just want to add that the hassle will pay off in the future as well as you'll be in a better part of the cycle. If you are willing to deal with the hassle one month, you might want to consider doing it for two months (which I think will be less than double the pain) as I think Nov 1 is an even more scary date for landlords (being Halloween and all). Fluter, what is your opinion on that?

real estate is very sticky and waiting 1 month will not save you much money.

Waiting until signing a Nov 1 lease is definitely a possibility, if it appears to be beneficial. Thanks so far for the opinions -- anyone else want to weigh in?

I recall an elliman broker (Tamir something) in the papers saying that he always tried to renegotiate leases for his landlords so that the renewal period fell in the "very busy" summer period. This was a couple of years ago, but it holds true today. Some landlords are continuing to offer concessions this summer, but many of them will hope that newcomers to the city will not be savvy enough to know the conditions and will pay the higher prices and/or forego concessions. This may very well be true, imagine relocating to NYC and starting the search with a serious rental negotiation, some would do so, others not so much. And because some people will just sign on the dotted line that may make rents appear to firm up for a month or so. So if you can wait until that dust settles, and i agree november would be a better timeframe, you should do much better. don't worry about supply, the landlords may be able to manipulate the rents temporarily, but they can't change the population dynamic, and it's not expansionary right now while supply definitely is. Good luck.

i agree: definitely wait. more and more rentals are going to hit the market in the coming months (new buildings and conversions of condos to rentals) and less and less people are looking to rent (new jobs are just not there yet) creates a downward pressure to the rental market. when the summer ends and the dust settles, it will be even more apparent and landlords will offer almost anything to keep their properties from sitting empty. your negotiating power should be much increased in november and vacancies even in very nice, well-managed buildings will keep coming. ask for at least 25-30% off from last year prices and try to get concessions like free months.

wow, you must have one really nice friend if he/she is going to let your crahs at their place for 2 months. I would throw you out after the first week....