It's a function of the way that statistics dribble out over the course of months that it wasn't so very long ago that we were writing about how, despite a bump in sales, second-quarter prices on NYC condos were flat year-over-year. It was fairly surprising, given that more sales and a limited supply of Manhattan apartments would indicate -- even to those, like your blogger, whose economic expertise is limited to auction-style fantasy baseball drafts -- that prices should rise. Supply and demand and elasticity and all that. But the last few years in Manhattan real estate have challenged just about every previously held belief most market-watchers have, and there the numbers were, tracking right alongside 2009's. The second quarter numbers, that is. With the arrival of the third quarter stats, it looks like things in the NYC condominium market have straightened themselves out. Which means that, belatedly, prices on Manhattan apartment listings did indeed climb in the last quarter, both over the second quarter and over the third quarter of 2009. Good news for fundamental economic rules, not-as-good news for Manhattan condo buyers, right? As usual, it's a little more complicated than that.