I am currently on a flight to Marrakech to take a look at some new real estate projects and to get some first hand market indicators. I will tell you more about this trip upon my return. As the plane is a great place to catch up on reading market reviews and I took the opportunity to look through the Brown Harris Stevens - Manhattan Residential Real Estate Market Report from Q4 2007, composed by BHS' Chief Economist, Gregory Heym, who serves on the City's Economic Advisory Panel.

It clearly shows that, even though the world markets have been shaken up since the credit crunch, we have to be careful not to generalise and assume that it affects the real estate investments made in all corners of the world. It has definitely not affected prices in Manhattan according to the report of BHS, New York's most exclusive real estate company, founded in 1873. The average price of apartments in Manhattan in Q4 2007 was over USD 1.4m, representing an increase of 34 compared to Q4 2006 and a new record!

The average sale price per square foot in was approaching 1.200 USD at the end of last year. I remember that in 1998, the year that I moved to the Big Apple for 4 years, this was about half or even a third of todays value. The bottom line is that it never harms to invest into residential real estate in major cities around the world such as NYC, especially when not only the land is scarce, but also the air!

Some other commentary on this subject :

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2007/10/02/manhattan-real-estate-still-booming/

Suzy Jagger over at the Times Online reports that the Manhatten Property Market is defying the malaise beyond the Hudson.

Les Christie at CNN believes that overseas buyers, empty nesters and Wall Street workers compete for the few homes for sale.

Also read the NY Times article on how Apartment Prices in Manhattan Defy National Real Estate Slide