It's a refrain that already sounds familiar and will no doubt be repeated many times more: Officials expect real estate revenues to fall, causing lots of number crunching in budgets.

The NY Sun reports that the city forecasts "a 39% decline in sales volume for all commercial transactions through 2009, and the median price of those transactions is expected to decline by 32%." Since the city charges 2.6% tax of the sale price, while the state takes "less than 1%", not to mention a mortgage recording tax. Mayor Bloomberg repeatedly mentioned belt-tightening during his 2008-2099 budget presentation.

Governor Spitzer had presented a budget a few weeks ago, but his administration is now lowering its tax revenue projection by $384 million. The NY Times writes, "It is rare for a governor to second-guess his own budget, especially so soon after releasing it," and now Spitzer is proposing even more spending cuts, like reducing health care spending.

Photograph of Brooklyn for sale property by nrvlowdown on Flickr