Have you seen lots of unavailable listings?

I have, to a lesser extent...and figure the seller just pulled the offer in most cases. Whether they come back to market or not is entirely dependent on the seller's situation.

I noticed that too over the past week or so. Initially wondering if things were selling but I think they are getting pulled. My broker says that there are still a lot of people out there who are testing the market but have enough equity in their places not to sell if they don't get their price. Hmmm... maybe I should consider the motivation behind that sweeping generalisation!

I have, yes

I have seen this tactic for some time now. I wonder if it's some brokers getting savvy to the fact that people are hip to "Streeteasy". And as a result they do not want to list properties "In contract" with the hopes of keeping interest alive. So the listings end up as "no longer available" until they are sold. However, there have been some instances where apartments go to "no longer available" and never move from that status, so I don't know what the story is with those. They all can't be take off the market, could they?

This happened to our apartment once when we gave a broker an exclusive for 6 months. The 6 months were up and the broker couldn't sell our apartment. We took it off the market (so it became 'no longer available'), signed our kids up for one more year of private school, and tried again the following year with a different broker.

My guess is that this is what is happening now. When people can't get their price, they take their apartment off the market, and just sit tight and wait it out.

The big question, mrsblogs, is how long are they going to have to wait?

I have noticed this trend as well. Not sure what they hope to accomplish, since sellers can probably get a better price now than they will next year, even with the credit crisis.

I, too, see some of my saved listings to have been taken off the market.I believe that there may be a combination of factors at play.
Those sellers who are not in a real hurry to sell may have decided to wait it out and see if the mortgage moneys will become more readily available to those who would like to buy in spite of everything that's going on with our economy.
The sellers figure that they are sitting on a pretty valuable investment and that they might as well wait to get the highest returns possible even if they need to hold on to the property for a while.
The truth of the matter is that drastic improvements to the economy need to first take place.
People are losing their jobs and those who are still working not being certain how much longer they will be employed.
I do not see buyers' pessimism changing quickly to an optimistic view that would prompt them to pay anything close to the current prices for the foreseeable future.
Another thought I have is: I wonder if the prices were to drop by 20-30% would we see a substantial rise in buying activity in Manhattan?

So, What does "Temporarily off the market" mean then? And why would a broker use that?

"The big question, mrsblogs, is how long are they going to have to wait?"

If the apartment is livable 'as is', then no one has to move out right away. The only people who will be stuck selling for a big loss will be those who have to relocate due to their job, those who already purchased another place, and those who are outgrowing their space due to their growing family. Everyone else can stay put for some time (if they have to). This is why I don't see the established family-sized apartment market crashing as drastically as everyone predicts (especially co-ops which are not highly leveraged).

Conversely, will there be any buyers for the newly constructed, overpriced, and empty, luxury condos? I can't imagine! But, I also don't see a scenario of fire-sale prices either simply because they can just be rented out to young people and students, if need be! Back in the 1980s, Columbia Condo, The Boulevard, The Montana, The Princeton, The Savannah and I'm sure others, became viable housing options for Columbia grad students. As long as there are people who need to be in a certain location for school or work, then there will be a housing market in the nearby neighborhoods.

How ironic that a $3.5 million 3BR condo that was so meticulously marketed to the young, monied crowd, could now be home to 6 grad students studying the downfall of hyper-capitalism!

Let a broker weigh in: I have a listing in SoHo where the contract has been sent out and has been signed by the buyer and returned with a deposit. It has not yet been countersigned by the seller.

On my firm's computer system (OLR) -- there's a status to reflect the exact situation: "Contract Out."

But on streeteasy, I have these choices:

"current," "in contract," and "no longer available."

So what am I supposed to pick? I don't want to mislead buyers about the apartment's availabilty, but it's not, technically, "in contract" yet.

If I pick "current" -- I am protecting my seller, by leaving the listing open so that I can field inquiries and explain the situation. On the other hand, I look like an idiot, because the listing looks much staler than it is, and potential buyers, who don't know that it's a CO, might feel that I'm pulling a bait-and-switch.

So "no longer available" beckons -- I didn't use it in this specific situation, but I bet some brokers might.

ali r.
{downtown broker}