[title]
If you're frustrated by the mind-numbing search for a Manhattan apartment in your price range, life just got a little bit easier. A new report from appraiser Miller Samuel shows that rents dropped in February for apartments of all sizes on the island, the first decline of the sort since at least 2013.
Rents for studio apartments in Manhattan experienced the most notable drop, as median prices fell by 2.6 percent from February 2016, marking the largest year-over-year decrease since Miller Samuel began tracking rental data in 2012, according to Bloomberg. New leases on studios also saw a huge drop from last year, and by huge we mean 31.9 percent.
Overall, the median rental price for Manhattan apartments of all sizes in February was $3,350, down from $3,382 in 2016. That $32 difference might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but here's hoping that it indicates a larger trend of rent stagnation after years of steady increases. The report also found that median rent prices on apartments in Brooklyn are down 1.3 percent from February 2016, so that's delightful.
At the end of the day, the only way to nab a super reasonably-priced apartment in Manhattan is to enter the crapshoot of affordable housing lotteries. Heck, you could be one of two lucky winners to score a $519 studio in the Lower East Side.