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So is New York’s real-estate market currently hot or cold or lukewarm or tepid or what? The answer, of course, is that it’s all of these things depending on who looks at it and where and how he looks from. The latest report, in yesterday’s Times, concludes that the market is indeed hot — but only here. Anecdotal evidence includes tales of buyers storming open houses “in all price ranges.” One theory chalks up the increased hustle to December’s obscene Wall Street bonuses. Another posits that people have simply stopped worrying about the impending real-estate crash precisely because of the glut of self-contradictory information (in the last quarter, four major firms couldn’t even agree on which way the prices were trending). If the latter theory is correct, though, this means the upbeat Times item swings the pendulum too far into the positive territory; as a public service, then, we feel compelled to neutralize its impact. Sell. Sell now! NYC is overbuilding! Everyone who bought into every half-built luxury condo tower will attempt to flip at the same time! Run!
Scared again? Good. We did our part to keep the market healthy.
