will prices of condos and condop go down in 6 months?

housing actually bottoms before the recession, for whats it worth. Usially the quarter before a recession housing has cyclical bottoms

the market in Manhatten aint all that week, we may pull a 1990's florida where everyone gets slammed and we get nicked.

99% YES - prices will go down in the next 6 months. Things are WAY overpriced - fundamentals do not support the prices and nobody sees a proble with waiting a year or two to buy - cheaper to rent right now for comperable places even at these high rents.

99%!!!!!!!! You are so amazingly smart... Do you know who will win the super bowl...99% sure?

I agree with the weather comment, manhattan is such a tough market to predict what will happen. A lot of foreign investors still are buying. I went to see 50 pine and 15 broad st, a lot of foreigners who like luxury accomadations at a good price per square ft. Some other people are waiting on the sidelines to see what will happen. As far as wall st. bonuses are concerned some of these guys might not want to invest in real estate, since the market is very precarious right now. Any other thoughts

I'm the first one who responded. The recession comment didn't mean that housing & recsssion are necessarily mixed, just that no one can - with 100% accuracy - predict WHEN something will happen and how it will affect the housing market. There are so many variables that affect the economy that you can't predict.

Remember what happened after the dot-com bubble burst and the job market was tough - RE prices skyrocketed - wtf? Compare this with the recession in the early 90's when the RE market was in a slump - wtf?

If you've been looking to buy for a while and plan to live in the place for at least 5-10 years, then go for it and negotiate away. Won't matter where prices will be in 6 mos unless you sell then.

But it will matter when prices have not risen in real terms in 10 years....bad investment...

Come on, stop forecasting a real estate crash in the next year or two:

1) When everyone predict a crash it never happens

2) Manhattan is an island...

3) The dollar is weak, so for foreigners, new york is affordable compared to Paris / London / Tokyo...

4) People that are urge to sell at a deep discount driving the market down are not in NYC: very few exotics mortgage, tons of jobs in the financial industry (I don't talk about bonuses, I talk about losing jobs), minimum 20% downpayment for coops make that people will wait before selling at a lost, etc...

--> For sure if you want to buy now and sale next year, don't do it. You will lose money not really because of the depreciation of your asset, but because of all the closing cost (+/- 5%: mortgage and tranfer taxes, attorney and broker fees...) that you'll have to pay twice (in a way or another). But if you plan to live in your apartment for at least 3 to 5 years, and that you want to have you own think you can decorate, invest in, etc... do it !

Uh - REALITY CHECK TO THE POSTER ABOVE - we are in the middle of a real estate crash. Expect things to get MUCH worse before they get better.

God is speaking in CAPS again.

amen