You do not need the New Construction Manhattan blog to tell you what people do during tough economic times. You are (presumably) a person, and you have been alive over the last couple of years, and so you know full well what people do during tough economic times. They hunker down, they batten down hatches, and a bunch of other obscure/arcane phrases that basically translate to "wait it out." This is natural, and it makes a certain basic sense, but it is also, theoretically, not good news for the real estate market. And while prices have been held in place somewhat by the "apartment shortage," it hasn't been quite as simple as Econ 101 would have it.