WSJ: Manhattan Home Sales Slide

"I have an Australian, an Italian and English and German buyer coming from overseas for the holidays," he said.

What a coincidence: I have a similar story! A Jew, a gay, and a black guy walked into a bar....

Do tell, Steve!

Jonathan Miller, an appraiser and president of Miller Samuel Inc., said the latest figures may be ushering a period of stability and normalcy in the market. As a result, prices and sales will be unlikely to rise or fall very much as the economy gradually stabilizes, he said.

"We are not happy unless things are spinning wildly out of control or soaring up to the moon," he said. "In my view moderation is going to be the story for the new couple of years."

Here's mine:

A hindu, a jew, and a real estate broker are driving through the country side one day, and their car breaks down. So they walk to the nearest farm house. The farmer says "you're more than welcome to spend the night here until you can get your car fixed in the morning. The problem is, i only have two extra beds - one of you will have to sleep in the barn".

So the jewish guy says "That's OK I will sleep in the barn". So they all go to bed. 10 minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's the jewish gentleman. He says "You know, there's a pig in that barn. I'm pretty religious, and i'd prefer not to sleep next to a pig. Can someone else sleep in the barn?". So the hindu gentleman says "No problem, I will sleep in the barn". So they all go back to bed.

10 minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's the hindu person. He says "There's a cow in that barn. A cow is a pretty significant animal in my religion. If it's OK, I'd prefer not to sleep in the barn". So the real estate broker says "OK, I'LL go sleep in the barn".

10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was the cow and the pig...

The Devil tells a Real Estate Agent, “Look, I can make you richer, more famous, and more successful than any Real Estate Agent alive. In fact, I can make you the greatest agent that ever lived.”

“Well,” says the Real Estate Agent, “what do I have to do in return?”

The Devil smiles, “Well, of course you have to give me your soul,” he says, “but you also have to give me the souls of your children, the souls of your children’s children and, as a matter of fact, you have to give me the souls of all your descendants throughout eternity.”

“Wait a minute,” the Real Estate Agent says cautiously, “What’s the catch?”

'Yet brokers say that they have been busy over the past few months, with an increasing number of new sales contracts signed but not yet counted in the statistics. Much of this new activity won't be reflected in sales statistics until early 2011, they said.'

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hambuger today...sounds kind of...Whimpe

An Orthodox Jew with a parrot on his shoulder walks into a bar in Long Island City. The bar owner looks at him and says, "Where the hell did you get that thing?"

"They're all over Brooklyn," the parrot answered.

A stand-up comedian walks into a bar.

"Now where did they go and put the door?" he said, grabbing his throbbing face.

A pizzeria owner was selling slices for $2, but he decided he wasn't making enough money. So he raised the price to $3, but the still wasn't making enough money. So he raised the price to $4, but he still wasn't making enough money.

And so on and so forth until he had raised the price to $50, when a real estate agent walked by. And the pizzeria owner asked the real estate agent if he would like to buy a slice of pizza for $51. The real estate agent stopped dead in his tracks, turned to the pizzeria owner and said, "What, are you crazy? I'm not buying a slice of pizza until I can't afford it anymore."

They're not making any more pizza.

AH, just like land!

so a horse walks into a bar..the bartender says " why the long face "

but the costs of running the pizza parlor had gone up so that the owner needed to charge 50$/slice for the business to be viable---so, of course, the parlor's cutomers continued to buy pizza there

just as in rental real estate--owners' costs go up, rents go up---simple

commodity inflation, wheat.

West Village pizza is different

It's called the "Joe's Effect"

Hi AR...The pace is slow but does that mean prices will start to slide or will owners keep their apartments off the market..I just signed a 2-year lease so i'm not going to keep looking for at least a while.

WB, it's called "cost push" inflation. Because you see, according to the monetarists, things are worth the cost of the inputs, not the value of the output.

Or as "financeguy" claims, we can use the model of perfect competition for real estate, because real estate, like pizza slices, disappears once you eat it.

Still gonna be a very slow winter for sellers in particular.

Would anybody like to buy a bridge?

You'll need a bridge loan then. Finance rates are horrible.

A bear and a rabbit were taking a crap next to each other in the woods. The bear asked the rabbit, do you have trouble with crap sticking to your fur? Why no, said the rabbit, why? So the bear wiped his ass with the rabbit.

I hope you were able to clean up afterwards, JM.