Manhattan housing market suffers historic fall
Here’s what I always picture when I think of Manhattan: Glittery penthouses, high-end retail and high, high housing prices. It’s the one city you’d think might, just might, be safe from the housing slump.
Well, turns out that Manhattan isn’t much different from Cleveland, Milwaukee or Fort Wayne, Ind.: The housing slowdown has slammed the most famous part of the country’s most famous city.
According to a story by the Associated Press, housing sales in Manhattan during the first quarter of the year have fallen to their lowest levels in decades.
Three reports predicted a fall in the sales of Manhattan apartments from 47.6 percent to 60 percent in the first quarter.
Real estate experts in the city said that the market has suffered for two main reasons, according to the AP story. First, they say, sellers haven’t reacted quickly enough to the recession and the collapse of economic giants like Lehman Brothers. They haven’t lowered prices far enough.
Secondly, buyers are not confident enough in the economy, or their own financial standings, to take advantage of what discounts sellers have made on their properties.
Sound familiar? It should. The same thing has been happening in cities across the country. Manhattan, it turns out, isn’t all that unusual after all.
