Some reports from New York. "A sharp drop in the average price of Manhattan condominiums could revive concerns that the luxury condo boom, which has been seen around the five boroughs at an increasing rate since 2002, could result in a glut of apartments or developers rethinking their pricing expectations."

"Appraiser Jonathan Miller said some of the apartments now coming on the market are suffering from bad timing. If they had been completed over a year ago, they would have appreciated more quickly. Now, he said, higher mortgage rates have lowered demand and buyers are taking their time. 'Mortgage rates were what created the frenzy, and mortgage rates are what ended the boom,' Mr. Miller said."

"His analysis shows that the overall inventory of listed Manhattan apartments is up more than 50% versus last year. 'Sixty percent of condos in inventory right now are from new development,' Mr. Miller said. The average price of condominiums, which represent the vast majority of the new housing stock entering the market, decreased between 7.4% and 17% since a year ago."

"Last year, there were more than 31,000 residential building permits issued citywide, and more than 8,000 in Manhattan, the most since 1988, when records were first kept by the city's department of buildings. Through March of this year, that building trend has continued, and Manhattan is on pace to exceed last year's totals."

"An economist for Brown Harris Stevens, Gregory Heym said developers of new apartments are typically slow to publicly report when prices need to be trimmed down, but he said there is 'some concern that some of the projects will be able to get the prices they need.'"

"Messrs. Heym and Miller said that so far the decrease in prices of new condos is less than had been feared, and they are looking to see if the downward trend continues next quarter. 'In this transition period there is more inconsistency,' Mr. Miller said. 'It is the transition from a housing boom to a period of modest to flat growth.'"

"The inventory of condominiums, which recently have accounted for nearly all new development in the city, soared 93.5 percent from last year, while the inventory of co-operative apartments increased 30.8 percent. 'I wouldn't want to see the inventory go up too much more,' Dottie Herman, Prudential Douglas Elliman's CEO said." "

"'The Wall Street bonus money exaggerated price growth, because at the same time you had rising inventory,' Miller says. The second quarter had the highest inventory level since 1999, when Miller began tracking sales. The decline in sales activity was the worst in three years, he says."

"The growing inventory is due to a tug-of-war between many sellers and buyers who are having trouble converging on prices. 'I'm struck by how many buyers are waiting on the sideline,' Miller says. 'There are buyers, they're just not pulling the trigger.'"