With apartment rents in Manhattan continuing to shoot up every day, it is now rather commonplace to consider becoming a homeowner in the city rather than a tenant. With several new developments currently being built all over New York City, there is a large number of options to choose from as your next home. With some research, one can find their next home in the slew of new construction in Manhattan, and get a head start in the race to get such residences. After all, New York City’s real estate market is an extremely tough and fickle one, and getting a good pad is more often a case of being the early bird that catches the worm.

A look back at our blog posts over the past few months will reveal that one luxury condominium in particular has been popping up more than the others. The building in question is, of course, 15 Central Park West, the magnificent, limestone building designed by Robert A. M. Stern that has gained a very worthy reputation in Manhattan’s real estate market. While every apartment in this complex is by itself an amazing home, renovations and redesigns of the same have led to even more striking homes, with price tags that match the astounding glamour of these luxury homes.

Condo and co-op owners can breathe easy; the 17.5 percent abatement on real estate taxes will still be coming their way this year. While it seemed as though the tax reduction was in danger of expiring a few months ago, city officials have decided to keep the abatement in the budget for the 2012 fiscal year. However, this could change in years to come, as the future of tax breaks for Manhattan apartment owners could face alterations.

What size apartment sells best? In Manhattan’s real estate market, the size and resources of an apartment can be paramount. Difficult economic times means that buildings need to be marketable in order for any developers to make a true profit. Naturally, the issue rests in whether New York apartments should be large in size to suit serious homebuyers hoping to start families or reduced in size to suit out-of-town buyers seeking to live in small Manhattan condos that have just enough space to fit their needs. Interestingly, according to reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman, both of these extremes of apartments are showing marked increases in sales in recent years. It appears that varying customers truly do have varying tastes as they flock to both large Manhattan condos as well as smaller one-bedroom apartment listings.

The early winter months always come with a string of market analysis meant to gauge how Manhattan real estate trends will play out over the next year. We wrote earlier about overall trends experts predict will dominate headlines in 2012. Now the Real Deal has compiled the market trends that have been playing out since January, with commentary from industry players on how we can expect those trends to advance. Over the past month, ultra-luxury Manhattan condos have been doing as well as they did in 2011, while mid-priced condos in the $3 to $5 million range have shown marked improvement. Condos priced lower than that have been sluggish, suggesting that most people who want to buy prefer the extensive room and building amenities high-end apartments provide.