Number of Apartments for Rent in NYC Rises

The number of apartments for rent in Manhattan rose in August for the first time in eight months. Real estate broker CitiHabitats said the vacancy rate increased to just over 1 percent. But even as renters had more choice, rents remained unchanged from July. The average monthly cost of a studio was just over $1,800 and just under $2,500 for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

"It's still a landlord's market, and tenants need to be prepared to act because there's not a tremendous volume of apartments out there right now," said Gary Malin, president of CitiHabitats.

And finding a deal -- like a month's free rent or the landlord paying the broker's fees -- is rare. Only one in five apartments rented by CitiHabitats included deals for renters.