Manhattan Apartment Prices Hit Record High - New York Times
While most of the nation plods through a housing slowdown, Manhattan is experiencing its highest prices in history.

The average price of a Manhattan apartment in the first three months of this year was $1.7 million, up 33.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc., which processed the numbers for the brokerage firm Prudential Douglas Elliman.

[snip]

A number of brokerage firms released data about the first quarter that generally showed the same trends. All showed that the median price of an apartment grew. According to Miller Samuel, it was up to $917,000 from $840,000, suggesting high prices for many types of apartments.

The median price for studios rose by 22 percent, to $490,000 from $401,000; and the median price for one-bedroom apartments grew by 12 percent, to $750,000 from $669,000, according to the Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage firm.

I simply cannot express how disappointed I am in this news. It feels like every time our shining star cities (Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Francisco) get closer to beating Manhattan - that Manhattan slips away. So close, yet so far.

Readers - clearly you are not doing your part to help this situation. Why aren’t you helping our property values soar? You should be out there campaigning to tear down houses to save the environment! To allow 0%… no… -20% downpayments.

Damnit… what is it about Manhattan that allows it to constantly beat us?

Here’s what Renter4 recently said about Manhattan:

The place is dirty.

Check. We’ve got the Tenderloin.

It stinks of piss.

Check. We’ve got Market St. And University near Pizza My Heart sometimes.

The stockbrokers are really not so terribly pleasant to be around.

Check. We’ve got VC’s and wantrepreneurs.

The beaches are filthy.

Check. We’ve got Santa Cruz.

And the rats and the mumbling lunatics that erupt into foul-mouthed shouting at little children every five minutes… ye gods.

Check. We’ve got the Tenderloin.

And the one conviction that every New Yorker shares, no matter what their race or political leanings: IT’S ALL ABOUT THEM.

Check. We have Berkeley.

Come on folks. Let’s pull together and beat New York already!

(Thanks to Burbed reader M for this depressing find.)