"A Tale of Two Cities" - NYT on condo versus coop markets

The story's so hedged with caveats, there's not much to take from it. Seen better/timelier analysis here. As the story says, any "just fine" take on the condo market is due to timing. The stats are still skewed by big-bucks closing that went into contract long ago.

JOSH BARBANEL must be working a the Times as a after school project. How absolutly shitty was that article. Poorly written and poorly organized with few salient points. If only 2 apartments in the entire city sold in the month of Feb. and one sold for 1M and the other sold for 10M then the average selling price for apartments sold in Feb. would be 5.5M. Is this information of any useable value? Oh, the poor Times...how far you have fallen. Give me the days of Gerald Boyd and Harold and I'll show you a paper worth reading. Now its only true worth is puppy wee-wee training. Josh's mom should be very dissapointed in here little boys work.

Forget about real real estate reporting by the NYT - they seem to step into that mess very reluctant and slooowly - maybe their advertisement department demands that. Even this WE magazine which concentrates on the RE malaise seems to be more interested about a glamor report about infamous Lenz than anything else. Oh well - I have cancelled long time ago my NYT sub - not worth it.

I am having a hard time deciding if this is just bad writing or a good piece that has been gutted to meet editorial limitations.

The Times author has the facts yet talks around them, essentially manufacturing some positive spin on condos. How do deed filings that are 60% less y-o-y indicate a relatively strong condo market? Focus on average prices.

However, that angle is subsumed by all the countervailing points he reports. The most telling line to me was that in spite of financing limitations, "[w]ealthy buyers paying cash for more expensive apartments were not affected." There it is. Of the units that filed deeds in February, many likely were for pricier apartments because of all-cash buyers or buyers requiring lower loan-to-value ratios.

The filings drop-off should have been the lead, with some analysis on cancelled contracts plus the other points glossed over in the article (contract-to-closing lag, financing limitations, etc.). The comparison of average pricing would be included but qualified by all the limitations on that data, such as relative pool size and skew from the top-end.

Jonathan Miller is noticeably absent as a source from this particular piece. He likely would have set the author, or his editor, straight that the figures indeed are alligned with the facts.

"If only 2 apartments in the entire city sold in the month of Feb. and one sold for 1M and the other sold for 10M then the average selling price for apartments sold in Feb. would be 5.5M. Is this information of any useable value?"

Well, to be fair, the median is the same stat folks were using to show the market was going UP for years.