Rents are increasing as sales decrease

I am seeing just the opposite in NY. Rent decreases are a norm in the last 6 weeks. O, how the market has turned 180 just from 6 weeks ago when the rental market was hot.I see it really soft above $4000 with major reductions in asking price.

This is expected behavior *in general*.

What should be interesting to see locally here in Manhattan is whether or not job losses in the city will result in BOTH rent and home prices going down as the incentive to live here decreases as people move out.

The statistic that I will be watching is local demographics and NET movement, whether in or out of the city.

This is another one of those real estate statistics that is not particularly helpful. For one thing rents in NYC range from a $600 studio in East New York to a $30,000+ BR at 15 CPW. It's like averaging the distance on a ball hit by a 10-year old and one hit by Barry Bonds. A more useful statistic would be a Case/Shiller type study; where rents on the same apartment would be tracked year over year. The article also mentions "asking rents" as the metric. 1)Rents may be negotiated off the ask. 2)Some buildings ask a certain rent but offer free months reducing the net effective rent. 3)apartments may simply not rent.

There are over 2,1000,000 rental units in NYC. A 2.2% vacancy rate is almost 50,000 available units.

a change from 2.0% to 2.2% is an addition of 4,200 new units. Something like 50 new rental buildings.

reading that article, 2.2% vacancy may include all the boroughs. If that is the case, the vacancy rental rate is probably closer to 1% in Manhattan.

surdy,

Rents are NOT decreasing. Rents may be "decreasing" in the form of landlords offering free months of rent or paying the broekrs fee in some areas, but very rarely are landlords actually reducing the base rent.

I have a one bedroom on east 46 1 block from UN doorman building, in January 1 08 I rented it for 2995.00 dead of winter worst rental time. I just got a one year lease at 3395.00. Up till 2 weeks ago it was pretty dead then in the last week a lot more activity.I still love that monthly rent check.

Alpine292

I am mostly looking at rental condos only (where I had originally looked at buying) as wanted more upscale finishes/location. Having followed the market segment for a few months I know there are some bargains to be had, as I have seen rental prices drop and availabilities increase as more closings take place in the condo buildings I was looking at.