New theory: As the stock market continues to go down, down, down, Manhattan’s apartment vacancy rate will go up, up, up. Back in August, before Lehman Brothers imploded, the vacancy rate was 1.39 percent in Manhattan, according to statistics from Citi Habitats. Their February report, available here (PDF), indicates a 2.46 percent vacancy rate, considerably higher than January’s 2.24 percent rate and exponentially higher than last February’s rate of 1.31 percent.
Oh, and by...