Housing Slump Hits Manhattan - more than 40% price drops

The markets of Palm Beach and Manhattan are tightly linked and this should provide helpful guidance to sellers hoping to sell their Palm Bech homes at above 2002 prices:


As the NY times reports :

"the Manhattan real estate market has just begun a steep slide. It parallels the decline in New York’s financial services industry, and housing analysts say it may continue long after other markets heal....housing analysts are predicting a prolonged slump in prices and sales that could last as long as four or five years."


"The stress is most severe at the high end of the market. "

“For the last three years, it was the bigger the better,” said Dolly Lenz, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman. “Now the key words are smaller, livable and affordable. Before no one asked what the maintenance was. Now everyone wants to know.”

Referring to the former home of Harry Belafonte, now owned by Abigail Disney and first listed for $17.5 million " After a series of price cuts, Ms. Disney has finally found buyers for the property, for just under $7.5 million, a 46 percent discount from her initial asking price. But to make a deal she agreed to restore the walls and convert it back into two apartments and sell it to two buyers."


"Shaun Osher, the chief executive of Core Group Marketing, said he had begun to see more activity this spring, but at much lower prices, with luxury apartment prices off as much as 40 percent."