Manhattan Calling NYTimes.com

ANDREW BAISLEY described himself as a “cheerleader for Brooklyn” — at least until a month ago, when the proud Bushwickian decided to take a peek at the Manhattan rental market. Now he has a one-bedroom in Chelsea with outdoor space and a 10-minute commute, all for an “unbelievable” ,100 a month.

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Perry Balin and Tess moved to a West 95th Street studio from Boerum Hill.

Enlarge This Image Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Matthew Creamer was very happy in Sunset Park, but he now lives on East 33rd Street.

“When you go to Manhattan, there’s an air of selling out,” he says. “I’ve accepted that.”

Great Recession prices are drawing even the most loyal outer-borough dwellers back to Manhattan. The migrants hail from Hoboken, Astoria and the brownstone blocks off Prospect Park, as New Yorkers who found themselves priced out of the gilded isle in the boom years are bidding farewell to long commutes and skinny-jean chic.

Among the lures: ,600 one-bedrooms on the Lower East Side. Lenient landlords who no longer require security deposits. And an overriding sense that an obscenely overpriced borough is now, well, slightly more reasonably overpriced.

“There’s a part of me that feels like I’m cheating on Brooklyn,” said Keith O’Brien, a 30-year-old in marketing and public relations who recently jumped from a spacious two-bedroom in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to a Lower East Side walk-up. “But this was a unique moment in real estate history where renters have the upper hand, which seemed unbelievable a couple of years ago. I realized that it would have been foolish not to start looking at places.”

For an extra 0 a month, Mr. O’Brien — a seven-year Brooklyn stalwart — is now enjoying a trendy location and a six-minute commute, in exchange for losing half of his living space. “There’s no sink in the bathroom,” he said, “but concessions must be made.”

Newly minted Manhattanites range from 30-somethings seeking a professional edge through a shorter commute, to out-of-work recent graduates who think they can get a better deal on the Upper East Side than in the usual post-college enclaves of Williamsburg and Fort Greene.

Numbers on the New York rental market are notoriously unreliable, but recent reports suggest that rents are falling faster in Manhattan than in neighboring boroughs.

In the first three months of the year, one-bedroom rents in Manhattan fell 6.7 percent compared with the previous year, while Brooklyn one-bedrooms dropped just 3.2 percent, according to data from Citi Habitats and Ideal Properties Group, both brokerage firms. Other reports show some Manhattan rents down by 10 percent from a year ago.

“I just got lucky with the whole financial meltdown,” said Kristi Giamichael, 26, who earlier this year gleefully tracked falling rental prices on Craigslist from the Hoboken duplex that she shared with two friends. She liked her neighborhood bar scene and the ,172 rent, but realized Manhattan was no longer prohibitively expensive.

On May 1, Ms. Giamichael and a roommate moved into an 800-square-foot one-bedroom in Ruxton Towers, a landmark prewar building on 72nd Street off Central Park West. The two will split the ,600 rent, and the landlord paid the fee to their broker, Caroline Bass of Citi Habitats.

Like many young adults, Ms. Giamichael moved to New York at a time of brutally high rents in Manhattan. Those seeking perks like in-house gyms and roof decks flocked to Hoboken and Long Island City, where amenities could be had for the price of a Yorkville walk-up.

Now, prices at upscale rental buildings like 45 Wall Street have come down significantly, discounted by 15 to 20 percent in recent weeks. At 20 Exchange Place, a tricked-out conversion around the corner from the Stock Exchange, the management company will waive the security deposit if the prospective tenant’s credit checks out. Stuyvesant Town offers the same perk on some apartments, along with waiving the broker’s fee.

“We do see that certain neighborhoods in Manhattan may be a better deal than certain neighborhoods in the boroughs,” said Stephen Love, a broker at Ardor Realty.

So some New Yorkers who came to appreciate the outer boroughs — spacious apartments, neighborhood charm — are finding reasons to return.

Matthew Creamer spent nearly a decade in Brooklyn (with a brief stopover in Hoboken), rotating through Smith Street, Cobble Hill and finally Sunset Park, where he spent four happy years in a 1,000-square-foot one-bedroom for ,400 a month.

“I told a lot of friends that I would never move back from Brooklyn, had no desire to move back to Manhattan,” he recalled. “I said that on a lot of occasions.”

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