You can see from the data above that in most of Manhattan, the number of apartments on the market is on the rise. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise, given that the economy is looking rough, particularly in the financial sector. Usually, rising inventory indicates slowing sales, or a sense that buyers are waiting for sellers to drop their prices. But the surprises here are twofold: Chelsea is way up, far more than the rest, and Greenwich Village inventory (East, West, and central alike) is going against the trend—it’s actually fallen slightly. Why the disparity? The Flatiron district and West Chelsea were rezoned in 2004 and 2005 to allow for increased residential uses, and the towers that were planned then are coming on the market now—especially in Chelsea, around the High Line. By contrast, the Village is largely cordoned off into historic districts, meaning that almost nothing new is built, and demand just stays tight, year after year.
Data supplied by StreetEasy.com.