Manhattan apartment leasing down 59% in year

Whats the takeaway? That 8% sounds low...and with new leases down that much, shouldn't the rental market be down more than the 20% in price that it seems to me that it is? Hmmmm. The funny thing is I dont think lower prices would rent those apartment anyway...Its a function of people leaving and/or not being hired and coming into the city in the first place.

Alanhart beat me to this post.

But to answer the question... 8% is the YoY. Rents were falling well before that. A friend just renewed last month after a year, and they already had one of those big market discounts from the year before...

Fair enough. Yeah our lease signed in Sept 2008 felt like it already reflected a concession vs. the peak market. With leasing activity that low, I cant imagine this is going anywhere favorable. So you have this, condos, and the retails situation.... The premium of NYC to other major US cities is under attack from all angles.

Absolutely... I remember her search well, she was definitely pulling out "market is down" stats and looking for discounts.