Moving now, rental to rental

I'm moving now, I had an 18 month lease when I came to NYC from Chicago and the lease is up end of January. So I found that asking rents went down from early/mid-December to late December / early January (actually it seemed as if landlords raised the rents and took back the increases so it became flat with 2007 to early 2008) and that incentives increased from nothing to one month or one month to... [more]

I'm moving now, I had an 18 month lease when I came to NYC from Chicago and the lease is up end of January. So I found that asking rents went down from early/mid-December to late December / early January (actually it seemed as if landlords raised the rents and took back the increases so it became flat with 2007 to early 2008) and that incentives increased from nothing to one month or one month to two months, depending on the building and the occupancy. Gotta tell you tho, the process of packing and stuff is a damn nightmare, and the logistics on top of the lease signing are another nightmare - logistics to find the place, put in the application, get movers, be able to move overlapping (you can't just move out on 5pm Jan 31 and move in at 9am Feb 1), the move deposits on both sides, coordination, change of insurance and everything else. Other than economics, I kind of wish I were buying right now so I wouldn't have another move in a couple years and I could just stay somewhere and customize it. I find it funny how both rentals and new development condos are so stingy closet-wise compared to older pre-war buildings like on the Upper West Side. Ok, back to packing [less]