Of all the ridiculous ideas that precipitated what people are apparently calling The Great Recession, junk mortgages -- "subprime" is somehow too kind a word, here -- have to rank among the worst. Real estate in general, and New York apartments and condominiums in particular, have long ranked among the smartest and safest investments out there, but the rise and sad popularity of junk mortgages such as "interest-only" mortgages during the real estate boom did much to unmake that. Sure, the right NYC condo is still a terrific investment, but the market in general was damaged seriously by all the homes and apartments (generally not in New York City, of course) that were sold to people via frankly crappy means such as interest-only mortgages.

If we were perhaps a little too goofy for the (awesome) new Nouvel in Chelsea in yesterday's New Construction Manhattan blog post, it's worth noting that we are only slightly less over-the-moon for the very cool-looking and impressively lavish One Madison Park, a luxury condominium in the Flatiron District at 23 East 22nd Street. But while the condos for sale at One Madison Park are pretty much beyond reproach, the building itself has suffered through an... interesting period of late, with the developers getting into trouble with creditors and the entire building's brand taking something of a hit in the process.

We've devoted many pixels here at the New Construction Manhattan blog to the buyer-friendly trends in the market for NYC condos, and with good reason -- this is a pretty excellent time to be buying a condominium in Manhattan, for a myriad of reasons. That said, a look at the prices for NYC condos at present might make it seem like the buyer's market in NYC real estate is... well, not nearly buyer-friendly enough. And it might indeed seem that way, were you to look at the prices for, say, condos on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side. But the most important thing to note is this: per a recent report at The Real Deal, no one is actually paying those prices. In fact, most condos for sale in Manhattan are currently selling for somewhere between five and 30 percent less than their list prices. Why is this?

Buying a condominium in Manhattan is not easy. If there's one thing you'll hear from friends who've gone about purchasing a Manhattan apartment or NYC condo, it's that. But if there's one thing we keep going over here at the New Construction Manhattan blog, it's that buying NYC condos doesn't have to be quite as difficult as it is -- if you ask the right questions and work with the right real estate agent, buying an apartment in Manhattan can be satisfying and maybe even enjoyable. But, as proven in a new report at The Real Deal on the radically imprecise science of calculating the square footage of condominiums for sale, buying a condominium in Manhattan isn't easy. The good news, here, is that square footage numbers aren't necessarily the be-all and end-all when it comes to buying a condo.