Some New York City landlords are dropping their rents and offering up more incentives in a bid to woo tenants in the sluggish economy, several real-estate brokers told The Post. It's still not easy to find the apartment of your dreams, but more deals are popping up and some rents are dropping - even in Manhattan, according to brokers and tenants. "The market is softening and it's taking longer to rent apartments," said Steve Fuchs, director of leasing for Besen Residential. He said he's had several prime apartments that have languished on the market, like a studio in the East 80s for $1,325 that's been vacant for a month. One of his landlords recently lowered the prices on his Upper West Side apartments - knocking down the studios from $1,850 to $1,700 and one-bedrooms from $2,650 to $2,400. "Also, more and more landlords are starting to pay a one-month fee instead of the tenant paying the fee," said Fuchs. Adjina Dekidjiev, rental-operations manager with Manhattan Apartments, said that April is usually slow, but it's been even slower than usual. "I would say the recession has a lot to do with it," she said. Overall, rents across Manhattan have increased modestly or stayed the same in the past 12 months - except for studios, which dropped citywide by 2 percent, according to data from Citi Habitats. However, average rents in some areas have dipped dramatically in that time. For example, the price of a SoHo studio dropped a whopping 24 percent - from $2,455 to $1,855 - from April '07 to April '08, according to the most recent data from Citi Habitats. And the average rents for two-bedrooms on the Lower East Side are down almost 18 percent, from $4,144 to $3,403.

More...