Bubble Wrap

Unthinkable Happens: Manhattan Apartment Prices Fall

The Sun’s Candace Taylor reports on fresh data that sellers in Manhattan are starting to take losses on their properties, which could be the first sign of falling prices.

Real estate firms have continued to pump out market reports showing high sales activity and rising median prices, largely because they use home sales that took place several months earlier. Newly released city records — it can take several weeks or months before the records are made available — show apartment sales are falling. The data flies in the face of repeated assertions from industry insiders over the past several months that the Manhattan real estate market is impervious to the housing slowdown taking place across the country.