Thursday, August 23, 2007
Subprime skittishness settling down?
I'm back from vacation and hit the ground running this week. I'm catching my breath and catching up on my reading about the credit crisis and it's effect on the Manhattan real estate market. I'll have more to say about that in an upcoming post, but for now I want to share with you an article from our friends at the Wharton School of Business about the recent volatility in the capital markets. The New York City real estate market is inevitably tied to the fortunes of Wall Street, and the availability of mortgage money.
What's Ahead for the Stock Market— and Quant Funds?
Around the world, investors have been reeling from widespread problems in the subprime sector of the U.S. mortgage business. Stocks have fallen, especially among financial firms. Yields on Treasury securities have dropped, as people pile into an investment that's seen as a safe harbor in times of tumult. And companies – lumped together with the big crowd of homeowners who have defaulted on their loans – are finding it hard to borrow money.
Yet Siegel remains upbeat. "It's my belief that the basic economy is strong and that credits outside of the subprime mortgage industry are also strong," Siegel says. "The economy will weather this and equity markets will recover nicely. So I'm optimistic but chastened because I didn't think this hysteria would become as widespread as it did."
The second quarter 2007 Corcoran Report on the real estate market has arrived and it's available for download in 2 flavors, triple mint 
Corcoran and the other large NYC real estate brokerages recently released their second quarter numbers— in turn releasing a flurry of reporting on it by the real estate press. The standout metric for me concerned prices sinking a bit in the cooperative apartment market; more on that in a moment, but first a quick summary of the trends. In short, the NYC marketplace is surprisingly strong, running counter to the national housing slump. Robust Manhattan market activity is something that I've been taking about 
The New York Times Real Estate section ran a cover story today on
