Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer updates us on Manhattan Real Estate values,
According to Pamela Liebman, Corcoran’s CEO, the Manhattan market began to soften in the third quarter, owing in part to rising energy costs and media reports of the real estate bubble.
Locally, a lot of new inventory came on the market. Some 5,764 residences were in the listing inventory, a huge 52 percent increase over the past year.
“Buyers got tired of paying more and more and took a breather,” said Liebman.
But things began to turn a bit in the last six weeks of the year.
Much of that improvement came courtesy of Wall Street, according to Jonathan Miller, a real-estate appraiser and consultant who compiled data for the Elliman report. He said bonuses in the financial industry set a record this year.
“Wall Street accounts for only about 6 percent of the jobs in New York but 25 percent of the economic activity,” said Miller. “Every time there’s an up-tick in bonuses, there’s an up-tick in the real estate market.”
Elliman’s CEO, Dottie Herman, said she doesn’t expect the Manhattan market to return to double-digit appreciation. That will “weed out the segment of the market that likes to flip, buy properties and sell them six months later for millions of dollars.”
Herman does predict modest price increases of five or six percent during the coming year.