As expected, CORE’s latest Real Time Report (click here to download the PDF), which includes the most current contract data from StreetEasy, showed us that the Manhattan real estate market is strong across the board. Our monthly report found that, compared to last year, overall contract volume rose by over 26%, while inventory has continued to shrink — an overall decrease of 11% since last year. And this week Crain’s reports that this high demand and lack of supply is sending condominium prices soaring, with great success for sellers. In fact, our Walker Tower project is highlighted as one new development that is capitalizing on this “pricing pop.”

So where are we? It’s getting harder to find a good apartment at a reasonable price. (Although doesn’t that always seem to be the case if you’re a buyer?) With inventory levels continuing to shrink, I only see this becoming more difficult, and the housing shortage that I foresaw and predicted three years ago seems to have become a reality.

The effects of this? Higher prices, more bidding wars, less time on the market, and more situations where sellers are remorseful for selling and buyers are regretful over missed opportunities.

Shaun Osher is the founder and CEO of CORE.

A few factors drive price: consumer confidence, supply, demand.

According to a Bloomberg News article this week, there’s a lack of inventory of luxury housing, and prices are robust. Well, no kidding! This was predicted by yours truly (OK, and a few others) a few years ago when the development world took a dive in the wake of the credit crunch and no one was building anything new. Most of the “luxury” inventory consists of only a few types of product, and ironically, there is very little of it in Manhattan – one of the most expensive cities on the globe. If you own one of these — new development, prime location large homes on Central Park, Park and Fifth Avenues, penthouses, townhouses, and large downtown lofts — then you have a trophy.

Owners of these types of properties are generally financially sound enough to only sell when they want to. They can weather a bad market and sell when the market is more favorable. Developers who time this market right have a huge advantage to sit on their inventory, and wait for their number. And wait, they have.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford a trophy you should buy it because it wasn’t too long ago that talk of $2,000 per square foot on 57th Street was the stuff of a fiction novel. Now a developer is claiming $10,000 per foot for a building with a view.

To be continued…

Shaun Osher is the founder and CEO of CORE.

One positive thing the P.L.C.B.B. (Pre-Lehman Collapse Building Boom) gave us was a superior stock of well-conceived shiny new condos. Is it any wonder why these new condos are now selling for a premium, even now? A lengthy New York Times article this past Sunday explored this phenomenon, and I’d like to elaborate on my comments in the story – that product in new developments fares best even when the markets are in decline.

If you think about it, the way in which we live our lives today has changed about as dramatically as the way we communicate. (Remember the beeper and pay phone?) Buildings today are designed differently – because we live differently. To most, the layout of the un-renovated classic six on Park Avenue is not as desirable as the new loft apartment on lower Fifth Avenue. Does anyone (with a budget) in Manhattan still use a formal dining room? Certainly not as much as a playroom, home office, guest room or open kitchen.

And now that these newer buildings have amenities to match our lifestyles, their appeal is that much greater. The interesting observation to me of real estate relative to history is how it reflects our current culture. And it is changing more now than ever before. Our pipeline of new developments we will be bringing to the market in the next wave of housing reflects this. Not only as a representation of our lifestyle, but an evolution of our culture.

Shaun Osher is the founder and CEO of CORE.