Renting in Manhattan is the crown jewel of moving to New York City. It's where almost everybody wants to live, work, and hang out.

Different neighborhoods in New York City cater to different life styles. When it comes to renting apartments in Manhattan, practically every neighborhood offers housing from basic walk-up apartments to luxury doorman buildings. Before looking you look for apartments in New York City, you want to be absolutely clear about your budget.

In most of Manhattan, landlords are looking for tenants who earn at least 40 times the monthly rent. Most landlords will also consider a guarantor if the renter is a student or does not earn sufficient income to meet the landlord's requirements. In Upper Manhattan, the financial requirement are a little less stringent.

Broadly speaking, Manhattan is divided into 6 main groupings of neighborhoods:

1. Downtown Manhattan

includes such neighborhoods as the Wall Street area, South Street Seaport, Battery Park City, Tribeca, the City Hall area, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the East Village, Soho, Noho, the Village, and the West Village. In short, Downtown Manhattan includes all areas below 14th Street.

Of all the areas to live in Manhattan, the East Village and Lower East Side apartments are the closest to the trendy action and bars in Lower Manhattan.

takes in all areas west of Central Park, from 57th Street north to 110th Street, including Central Park West and Lincoln Square.

The Upper West Side is THE place for serious musicians, with Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School of Music, and the Mannes School of Music. If you want arts and culture, the Upper West Side should be to place to find your rental apartment.

6. Upper Manhattan

is everything north of 110th Street on the West Side and north of 96th Street on the East Side. Some of the neighborhoods included in Upper Manhattan are; Columbia University area, Morningside Heights, Manhattanville, City College area, Riverside Drive vicinity, East Harlem, Harlem, Washington Heights, Hudson Heights, Hamilton Heights and Inwood.

The lowest rents in Manhattan will be found in the Upper Manhattan neighborhoods. As a bonus, some of the most beautiful pre-war apartments in NYC are in Upper Manhattan. And don't forget the two GEMS in Upper Manhattan; The Cloisters and Inwood Park.

As you can see, the diversity of apartments for rent Manhattan is great. There are good quality apartments available in all areas and neighborhoods. In general though, most people want to be in areas 1 through 5. That's the area we call "Prime Manhattan". It's the area people think of when they think of living in Manhattan.

But even though Upper Manhattan isn't on the "Prime" list, don't think there aren't terrific rental buildings there too. Some of the largest apartments and best rental prices are to be found in Upper Manhattan. Whenever we have renters who aren't sure where to live, have a limited budget and want to rent in Manhattan, we tell them to look at the apartments available in Upper Manhattan.

Select the neighborhoods you want to search for Manhattan apartments and remember that all NYC rental apartments have one thing in common; if you visit them with a broker, you will have to pay a broker's fee of 15% of the first year's rent. That's almost two month's of rent! But if you find your NYC apartment through RentNY.com, you will never have to pay a broker's fee - even on the very same apartment!

If you know your way around Manhattan, you can be looking at great no fee apartments in just a few minutes. Go ahead and search our listings. We have your new New York City apartment rental.

Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for your help in finding my new apartment. I really did not know what was available to me out there in the market and you certainly opened my eyes to areas of New York that I would have never believed was in my price range. It only took 3 days to not only find an apartment, but to be approved and sign a lease just one day later. My new apartment is a dream come true. I knew I wanted it to be my home the second I walked into the building and felt like the luckiest guy in town when I walked through and checked out the rooms. The pictures could not even compare to the worksmanship and structure of my new home. Thank you so much for all of your support.

- Reuben Mohammad, rented an apartment in Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn

Hi All. I just wanted to say THANK YOU AGAIN for setting us up with your service and taking the time to go over everything. We were able to find the perfect place for us in Hell‘s Kitchen from one of your listings, in one day. Next move, I will call on them again.

- Ken Wilbanks, rented an apartment in West 50s, Manhattan

Hi RentNY, Thank you so much for all of your help. RentNY.com is such a great website and organization. The renter‘s guide pamphlets on your website were so helpful. I used the checklist every time I visited an apartment. The quality of the apartments on your website was also very impressive. Of all of the places I saw only two of the apartments were places I would not consider living in. The other 10-12 were fantastic. I am so happy I used your services. I now recommend you all to my friends who are looking for apartments!

- Deborah Walker, rented an apartment in Harlem, Manhattan

Hi, I wanted to let you know that your service is fantastic. I had been searching for an apt for 3 weeks with no success. Once you sent me my pass code, I found my apt in 15mins. Thanks very much.

- James/Lauren Jones, rented an apartment in Tribeca, Manhattan

Hello RentNY: I was relocating to NYC from Chicago to attends graduate school at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). My Mom and I were looking at apartments in the general vicinity of the school which is in the east 20s. The rental market in NYC is very chaotic and it is hard to know who to trust. We tried using brokers and were shown terrible apartments and with relative high rents. Then we found RentNY.com. We saw lots of listings in my price range that met my no fee criteria. One was on target and even though it was rented before we could view it we found another apartment in the same complex. We both recommend the service highly.

- Jessica and Shirley Eis, rented an apartment in East 20s, Manhattan

Hi All, Just wanted to let you know we found an apt. for Sean in the financial district this past week. I guess we no longer need the updates. Thank you so much for your help. It helped me see what was out there and set the stage for an easy week! Best Regards, Linda and Sean O‘Connor

- Linda/Sean O'Connor, rented an apartment in Wall Street Vicinity, Manhattan

I had a great experience with RentNY.com. Before I found the site, I was pouring through newspapers for apartment advertisements — my desk was covered in papers — and making visits with brokers who wanted exorbitant fees. With its extensive listings, RentNY.com let me clean up the clutter, doing everything online instead, and got me out of paying thousands of dollars to a broker. Thanks, RentNY.com!

- Micah Landau, rented an apartment in East Village, Manhattan

Hi All, Just wanted to let you know we found an apt. for Sean in the financial district this past week. I guess we no longer need the updates. Thank you so much for your help. It helped me see what was out there and set the stage for an easy week! Best Regards, Linda and Sean O‘Connor

- Linda/Sean O'Connor, rented an apartment in Wall Street Vicinity, Manhattan