The Optimism Index

From New York Magazine. Though the New York City coop market should hold up better than the condo market, tThis sounds a bit optimistic to me....


The Optimism Index, Part II

Two weeks ago, we called upon Streeteasy.com’s data team to gauge whether condo sellers were growing less hopeful. That is, we plotted asking (as opposed to selling) prices in 2008 against those in 2007. The results were informative enough that we’re back with more—this time about co-ops, which tend to be a little less volatile than condos because their boards are stricter.
And what do we see? Co-ops’ asking prices are down slightly, too, but the drops are generally a little smaller than among condos. The only marked decrease is in Upper Manhattan, where asking prices fell 6.31 percent. (Note that the average price there is lower, so it takes much less of a dip to create a big percentage swing.) In traditionally high-demand downtown areas, the prices are even up a bit, by 1.36 percent.









As to optimism: We’ll know more when we can compare these asking prices with actual post-meltdown sales, which should begin to become evident around the end of the year.
Data provided by Streeteasy.com.