(post by Dee) According to Mortgage News Daily, Condo Prices are Falling Across Manhattan. Some city brokers will continue to live in denial. Good for them! Now some others (like yours truly) will be realistic and adjust in their business, telling clients/sellers “like it is” and focusing on areas that are still hot (industrial, multi-family rentals)… but what if YOU own a property and suddenly are stuck in it for a while, until prices recover? What if you locked into a pre-construction contract on a condo, no less, say a few months ago? Lose your down payment deposit and bank fees and walk away? Or bite the bullet and enjoy living there without concern for market value for the next several years?

Some fresh facts… Way North, Harlem condo sales dropped 76 percent. Way South, in Financial District, sales dropped by 70% while prices are down 16% year-over-year, 2007 to 2008. And in perhaps the most steady and desired area of all, Upper East Side of Manhattan, prices are down 11% and transactions are 30% lower. I guess we are part of the overall US economy, after all. We use the same national banks, who are stalling many sales.

New evidence: appraisers are no longer using any comps from before September, considering them all overpriced. Deals are being held up and have to be reworked due to low appraisals. It was artificially low interest rates and poor lending standards that led to this real estate market bubble, they say… then why are “they” now allowing unreasonably tight credit market and panicky appraisers, mortgage bankers and lawyers drag transactions to a halt and market to not function properly? Don’t we ever learn? Yes to tightening lending standards and practices! Yes to higher down payments! Yes to slowdown in mindless construction boom! NO to denying sound deals or charging ridiculously high jumbo mortgage rates to credit-worthy borrowers!!!