We won’t have lots of information about the actual state of the real-estate market until the fourth-quarter market reports come out in January. But Streeteasy.com collects and sifts data all year long, and as the numbers since the mid-September meltdown have trickled in, we can begin to look for trends. Above, we’ve shown the number of closings in October 2007 and October 2008. (We have omitted new developments, since one tower in a neighborhood can hugely skew an area’s figures.) What we see is a lot less activity, which indicates either (a) a pause while the market shakes itself out, or (b) apartments genuinely languishing on the market. We’ll know which soon enough.
Though the figures aren’t displayed here, we also took a look at the prices of these resales. The results are inconclusive, again because it’s just too early to say. A few deals came after substantial price cuts, many more sold for full asking, and although there were few patterns by neighborhood, Harlem had the smallest difference between asking and selling prices.
Data provided by Streeteasy.com.