Though we’re not seeing rental prices softening quite yet (considering we’re in October) we are seeing some landlords entertaining move-in dates as far out as December. While in summer months rental searches were happening in 2-week increments, it’s nice to see this flexibility drip back into the market.
Although we wouldn’t say that this is a full-out trend, we do deem it noteworthy. They’re walking a fine line between maintaining existing prices for as long as possible while trying to decrease the probability of vacancies weeks down the road. Kudos to them!
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I do see rent prices softening in Manhattan. In my research for a project, I have found a large majority of apartments offering one or two months free rent while keeping the monthly rent price the same when the tenant signs a one or two year lease term. This effectively discounts the rent 8 1/3% to 16 2/3% on an annual basis.
I believe these discounts need to be modeled in the Case-Schiller and to my knowledge have not been deeply discussed.
Jamal
Indeed, many landlords are offering either to pay the broker’s fee or provide a month’s free rent, sometimes both (especially during slower winter months). Thereafter, market conditions dictate the subsequent year’s rent increase. Some landlords have even taken the goodwill gesture to extend the same concessions to lease renewers as they do to new tenants. Now THAT’s good practice!