The specific numbers are different from quarter to quarter, of course, but for the most part the last few rounds of NYC rental stats  all point to the same conclusion -- the market for Manhattan rental apartments is strong, and growing stronger with each passing month. Which sounds great, of course, but has been less than great in practice for Manhattan rental apartment hunters. With vacancy rates back under one percent and rents rising slowly but steadily, all the things that made the less-than-strong NYC rental market of old so appealing for renters have become harder and harder to find. Regular readers of the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog have probably noticed that posts like this have become something of a regular presence in this space. Gone, we note in tones of deep regret, are Manhattan rental apartments offering concessions, gone are the free months of rent and gym memberships and suchlike. Gone are the no-fee... oh wait, what's that? Some high-end new construction rental buildings are actually still offering up appealing concessions? And no-fee NYC rental listings are on the rise even though the rental market is strong and getting stronger? Must be getting cold outside. (Yes, that actually is how it works)

NYC dwellers of long standing -- or even longish standing -- remember a time when the Financial District was, finally, just that: a place where finance got done and power lunches were devoured, and just about that. Restaurants were closed by dinner time, bars locked up after happy hour, and grocery stores were something that existed 20 or more blocks north. That old Financial District doesn't really match with the Financial District of today, which has become one of Manhattan's fastest-growing and most promising residential neighborhoods -- and, not for nothing, also home to what are, per square foot and despite a recent rise in prices, the least expensive Manhattan apartments for rent this side of Harlem. The grand buildings of the Financial District -- many of them luxury rental buildings converted from previous lives as the office towers that used to define the neighborhood -- are home to a bunch of impressive and impressively appealing Financial District rental apartments but the neighborhood itself is, as the New York Observer's Guelda Voien points out, increasingly home to a vibrant and well-rounded neighborhood -- one where stroller-pushing families comfortably share space with party-throwing twentysomethings. Not bad, honestly, for a neighborhood that used to be a ghost town after the closing bell -- and nothing compared to what the Financial District promises to become over the next decade.