buyer's market — in the eyes of the beholder

Westelle - just out of curiousity:

Why aren't more nyc properties "fairly" priced these days? I'm trying to be objective in my definition of fair (as I am rather unobjective as someone looking to purchase an investment property) - a broker told me (fairly recently ~2 months ago) that it typically takes 3 open houses or 15-20 visitors to generate an acceptable offer. It seems as though the majority of available apts are sitting around for longer and not "clearing." Do you think this is more a function of aspirational brokers or sellors not accepting reality?

I know you got a few offers recently on a well priced (i.e. reasonable - $900 psf) apartment on the UWS. Did you convince the sellor to price appropriately? Any insight into the "other side" would be appreciated!

buster: depends on the property, the seller and some other things, I'd imagine. Investment property is a different animal because most likely the seller is not in a hurry to sell. I've seen apartment (in prime neighborhoods, great everything) sitting on a market for over a year (!), for reasons so different and multiple that any generalization will not work. Again, I'd think that the investment property was was/is investment property for the the seller, too. And I think that "reasonable" means different thing to different people.

It will take a little while longer for owners of all types to accept the new reality: unless your apt is perfect, perfect space, light, views etc, the only draw you have is price. Anything less than perfect will sit until prices come down. Prices on all the new construction is skewing ordinary owner's sense of what selling prices are possible.

There is a reason why owners aren't necessarily accepting the "new reality." Example - A friend of mine just put an apartment on the market a week ago (just under 2 mil) for, what I thought, was about $250K overpriced. Less than a week later, an offer at asking just came in. Despite all the doomsday talk, some owners are still realizing the incredible gains of the Manhattan market. The fact is, the "new reality" is not necessarily reality for everyone.