Bubble Wrap

Buying From the Glut

New York Magazine has surveyed many new condo buildings sitting on the market and questions whether you should steer clear, or bargain hunt.

But is it a good time to be a buyer? Is that gleaming, empty tower in your neighborhood a white elephant—or a bargain buy? The buildings below are, to varying degrees, selling slowly or not at all. (They range from a $325,000 one-bedroom in Brooklyn to a $6.8 million East Side penthouse.) We’ve taken the market’s temperature, neighborhood by neighborhood, based on data from Streeteasy.com and talks with experts of every kind. And wherever you’re shopping, remember that long-term buys are inherently safer at a time like this. The era of the quick profitable flip is over.