Buyers love to see apartments, but they’re not the only ones. Any seller knows that Manhattan’s open houses are filled with competitive people looking to buy a great apartment, but they also attract people who have no intention of actually signing a contract; many just want to see places for their own entertainment. Much like a Broadway show or a movie, it’s a way for people to engage in fantasy for a few hours, which is why many open houses for Manhattan apartments in the $1 million to $2 million price range are such scenes. Perhaps this is why, despite their popularity, some are beginning to question how useful open houses really are. This is the Internet age, after all, and many buyers now rely on sophisticated websites to buy apartments rather than brave the crowds. So this raises the question: if you’re selling an apartment in Manhattan, is hosting an open house worth your while?

Many words might pop into a prospective home-buyer's head while browsing New Construction Manhattan's NYC condo listings, but the word "cheap" probably isn't one of them. There's a reason why Manhattan apartments have proven to be such a good investment, after all -- a limited supply (as discussed earlier at the NCM blog, possibly very limited in the near team) and virtually unlimited demand has ensured that Manhattan apartments tend to hold their value very well. Of course, if you are approaching it from a buyer's perspective, it might seem more correct to say that Manhattan apartments tend to stay quite expensive. But while the Manhattan real estate market remains one of the most competitive and expensive real estate markets in the world -- and while New York City occasionally seems to be its own independent country -- the market for NYC condos is not immune from the effects of the broader U.S. economy. Which is all sort of a long way of saying that, while Manhattan apartment prices remain high, they are in fact notably lower than in years past. No, really.

We say it seemingly every day: the statistics all indicate that the market for NYC condos is better than it has been in a long time, and improving every quarter. And yet, as you surely know if you've even walked past a newspaper over the last year or so, people in this world -- and in New York City -- are pretty hacked off. About... well, name it. Fantastically irresponsible, totally trumped-up real estate scandals that play loathsomely to the smallest-minded among us? Yeah, we've got that. But there are legitimate causes for concern in this world and city of ours, and the broader uncertainties of the national and global economy are among them. So while we can tell the world, several times weekly, that the Manhattan condominium market is going strong and that NYC condos remain a really great investment, it stands to reason that a city that's even more on edge than usual, people are a little more jittery about buying an apartment. Or it could be that people are just kind of difficult. At any rate, according to The New York Times, brokers, sellers and buyers have entered a new era of contentiousness. To which we at the New Construction Manhattan blog would like to say, without qualification or any quantitative evidence: nice try, but no.

If you're reading the New Construction Manhattan blog, there's a decent chance you're looking for a condo or apartment in Manhattan. Which means that there's a decent chance that you've probably noticed at least two things while searching for a condo or apartment for sale in New York City. The first is that everyone out there is quick to tell you that the market for NYC condos and apartments is currently tilted in the buyer's favor; the second is that the asking prices for those Manhattan condominiums and apartments don't really seem to have come down all that much. The operative word there is "seem" -- as we discussed in an earlier post to the New Construction Manhattan blog, the asking prices for NYC condos at the moment are notably different than the amounts that people are actually paying for NYC condos. In a post at Curbed, Sara Polsky uses Upper East Side luxury condominium 300 East 79 (no points for guessing that 300 East 79 is indeed located at 300 East 79th Street) as a lesson in the difference between the asking price for a Manhattan apartment and the actual price of said Manhattan apartment.