Yes we’ve been blitzed by rental market reports lately, but the scary numbers for landlords at the end of ‘09 make the findings in The Real Estate Group New York’s January Manhattan rental report feel almost uplifting. Almost. Rents have stayed relatively flat month-to-month, though they have fallen 6.5 percent in non-doorman buildings and 10.5 percent in doorman buildings since last year. This month the brokerage reports that inventory is down 17.66 percent, and—here’s the interesting bit—landlords are confident enough that the world isn’t ending that they’ve started creeping out of their fallout shelters to strip the concessions out of their listings and start increasing rents by $100 or $200 per unit over previous months. TREGNY circumspectly comments that “whether or not Manhattan’s rental market can handle these increases is still yet to be seen.” Indeed.

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/26/report_claims_manhattan_landlords_testing_rent_increases.php