January 3, 2008
Map of the Day: Manhattan Housing Still Super Hot (or Not)
Manhattan real estate sales set a record in the fourth quarter of 2007, with residential sales averaging out to be $1.4 million (according to data from Prudential Douglas Elliman), an increase of 17.6% over 2006's fourth quarter. However impressive that statistic is, the growth was primarily driven by super high-end sales of at least $10 million.
Apparently sales for condos at The Plaza and 15 Central Park West helped drive the average condo sale prices by $500,000, according to other reports, to $1.85 million. In fact, chief economist for Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property Gregory Heym tells the Post that "when the two buildings were factored out, average condo prices only jumped about 13 percent."
The Post has this map of some hot Manhattan neighborhoods. This sexy news comes as many are predicting flat or a down year for city real estate ahead. Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff tells the Sun, "I expect a huge collapse in Manhattan real estate, with apartments in New York City losing 90% of their value in terms of gold." Why? Because "The dollar is a deceptive way to measure the value of any asset, because the dollar itself is losing value, so prices have to rise just to stay constant." The Sun even has a chart of "Manhattan Real Estate Prices in Dollars and Gold"!
Other interesting stats: Median prices for 2-bedroom apartments in Park Slope, Fort Greene, and Clinton Hill have dropped 4-14% in the past year. Apartment prices on one part of Park Avenue grew 100%, but prices on the same stretch on Fifth Avenue dropped by $1 million.
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Being that I get paid in dollars and not in gold, I'm not particularly interested by what housing prices are doing relative to gold. Call me when they start to come down in terms of actual money that I can spend.
couldn't have said it better myself JMH. (PS lets go rangers!)
So housing prices have skyrocketed yet salaries have remained the same or even backpedaled a bit? yeah, thats sustainable... (whistling bomb sound) KERRRASH!
So housing prices have skyrocketed yet salaries have remained the same or even backpedaled a bit? yeah, thats sustainable... (whistling bomb sound) KERRRASH!
do that many people have gobs & gobs of money, or are a lot of them leveraged up to their teeth????
As much as I would love the market to come down so I could even think about buying here, the dollar is going to have to rally or else the buying spree by foreign buyers (who are basically getting a half price sale in the intance of UK buyers) is going to continue support the price increase.
Foreign investors have been a big force in buying apartments in the city.
Jen, you should read (or blog about) the "World of Tomorrow" NYTimes article, especially the section written by Jim Cramer (yes from "Mad Money").
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/nyregion/thecity/30year.html
And foreign people who bought properties because of the weak dollar (and by extension the strong euro) are going to take a bath when this corrects itself..and it WILL correct itself.