A small bite was finally taken out of the big apple with Manhattan apartment rents falling for the first time in two years last month. Rents dropped as tenants were lured into the homebuying market. Those remaining in the market pushed back on landlord increases. Per Bloomberg:
The median monthly rent dropped 3.1 percent from a year earlier to $3,095, the first annual decline since June 2011, according to a report today by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The vacancy rate climbed to 2.66 percent, the second-highest in three years, from 1.85 percent in September 2012.
“Where did those people come from? They came from the rental market,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said in an interview. “The spike in rates pulled people out of the rental market into purchase market. You can see that in the vacancy rate.”
