We'll admit it: there are better places to go for economic analysis than the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog. Which is fine, since we're mostly about point people towards no-fee rental listings and NYC rentals and less about detailed microeconomic position papers. Everyone's cool with that. But it has been interesting, during the tenuous but ongoing comeback in the Manhattan rental market, to se basic economic fundamentals getting a real world star turn -- and behaving more or less as the textbooks say they should. If you've been reading the blog -- or even just following Manhattan real estate -- you've seen it, too. From the way that prices have spiked as vacancies have gone down to the near-disappearance of concessions and incentives on NYC rentals, Manhattan real estate has been exceptionally logical of late. Not always kind, and certainly enough to send many renters looking back wistfully at the good old days of the renter's market, but logical. But if there's something reassuring in that logic, there's also something somewhat menacing about it, considering that what looks like a possible inventory crunch in the Manhattan rental market could send prices spiking in months to come. Economic rules: can't live with 'em, can't... well, you know the rest.
