Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to see how the pre-financial crisis wave of upscale Manhattan luxury condominiums built by the world’s best architects are faring. The fortunes of such buildings reveal many important lessons about the Manhattan luxury real estate market- mainly that market trends and location are still bigger factors than architecture. Prices for luxury condominiums in Manhattan are 10% below 2008’s high-water mark, and “Starchitect” buildings are holding up better than most othe luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan. In the short-term, the boom-time mentality that a brand name architect makes a significant pricing difference has dissapated because their values have gone down, albeit not as much as other luxury apartments in Manhattan. But depressed resale prices are only a part of the story. This wave of innovative architecture will still benefit buyers, neighbors, and Manhattanites for decades to come.

For apartments on the Manhattan sales market priced at $5 million or more, 2011 was a mixed bag. Headline stealing deals like of Sandy Weil’s 15 Central Park West penthouse obscured larger trends in the market. Overall, the 2011 high-end market was pedestrian: sales rose by less than 1% from 2010. Those gains were unevenly distributed too, as co-ops outperformed all other types of Manhattan luxury apartments. High-end market gains since its 2009 nadir are largely due to the increased presence of eager international buyers - the buyer of Sandy Weil’s apartment was a Russian billionaire - but New Yorkers have been much pickier during that time. And if the high-end sales market in Manhattan is going to fully recover, it needs them to start signing deals.

The New York Buildings Department released figures recently showing that the number of permits issued for demolition, construction, and new buildings all were considerably higher in the first two months of 2012 than they were during the first two months of 2011. This information comes as further evidence that the Manhattan housing market is taking lengthy strides away from the 2009 lows towards recovery.

The story of rent in Manhattan is an oft-told tale on New Construction Manhattan, but while most realtors agree that the rental market will remain strong, one firm predicted in a recent report that rents could rise by as much as 10% in 2012. And with rental inventory at 1.3% vacancy and landlords raising their prices, many New Yorkers, particularly younger ones who traditionally rent, have begun looking at apartments to buy.

The recent slowdown in the Manhattan sales market is on the way out. Despite the fact that sales have been way down in the past two financial quarters, buyers of luxury apartments in Manhattansigned 871 contracts in February. This strong showing exceeds pre-Lehman market activity in 2008, and it shows just how far we’ve come – at the nadir of the sales market in February 2009, only 484 signings took place. Even more impressive: a severe decline of supply in luxury condos and co-ops has done very little to deter activity. Supply dropped from 7,346 units-for-sale in 2011 to 6,738 in 2012, yet 2012 saw more signings. In other words, luxury apartments for sale in Manhattan are more popular than ever before, especially on the higher end of the market and more popular Manhattan neighborhoods.

With government officials issuing zoning proposals to stall the expansion of large chain stores on the Upper West Side, other Manhattan neighborhoodsare beginning to take note. Areas downtown and on the Upper East Side are now developing similar plans, in order to preserve retail diversity within their respective neighborhoods. 

The BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have been doing their part over the past few years to keep the Manhattan real estate market off the ground. Wealthy foreigners made up roughly 30% of all buyers of Manhattan condos in 2011. And with buildings like One57 in Midtown West that are being marketed towards the international community, this number shows no signs of decreasing in 2012. But while a Russian billionaire recently made headlines when he bought an in 15 Central Park West for his daughter, the New York Times recently wrote about how Brazilians have been much more quietly but no less dominantly infiltrating the Manhattan real estate market.

The real estate firm Prudential Douglas Elliman released a report recently that looked at real estate prices and figures over the past ten years, and DNA Info noticed that the numbers pointed to an interesting new trend in the Manhattan condo market. More families are moving into condos in Manhattan than ever before. Traditionally, New Yorkers move out to the suburbs once they decide to have children, but judging from the number of three- and four-bedroom condos that sold in Manhattan from 2002 to 2011, those families are now eager to be in the city itself.

The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo have released the February Housing Market Index, a monthly gauge of builder confidence in the national housing market. The index number of overall confidence in February was 29, a 4 point climb from January, when it was at 25. This is the fifth month in a row the number has gone up, and while still low, it is a promising indication that confidence in the market is improving nationwide. The Index includes information on different regions, but not for New York City specifically. But as we've written before, the is healthy.