NYC now relatively MORE EXPENSIVE

I figure this is just the strength of the dollar.... which is of course not good for foreigners buying here.

On what scale? Is it relative to employment and incomes?

NYC is also way behind in the downturn. Things just started turning down here a year or so ago, compared to 2-3 for the rest of the country; especially when it comes to real estate.

I assume this is the INTERNATIONAL rank, not the national. So us being behind rest of country isn't so meaningful. The rest of the world was also behind the rest of the US>

True. For awhile, I thought NYC RE prices were supposed to be "saved" by legions of hungry-for-a-piece-of-the-apple foreigners. Looks like they all missed their flights...

This is an int'l listing of most expensive cities. Here's the link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNarww97iKmg

When you look at the price level for this year vs last year, however, it's the same level (100), because NYC is used as the benchmark. The methodology is in the last para:

"The annual survey covers 143 cities and uses New York City as a benchmark for comparing the prices of more than 200 items, including housing, food, transportation and entertainment. The analysis is conducted by Mercer to help multinational companies gauge pay rates for international employees."