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.

Yesterday’s article in The New York Times was a reaffirmation of something people have been saying for years. It is truly perplexing to me that this measure of quantifying property value is still quoted and misquoted on a daily basis and has become the benchmark amongst “professionals” in the appraisal industry. Some “professionals” have actually made a profession out of doing this.

When the first report of this type came out 15 years ago, I contended that the measurement of a home is one of the most misleading ways to quantify the value of it. I say this as a broker who has walked through thousands of homes with buyers after seeing the things that make a difference to them (not as an appraiser). Clearly everyone wants a larger apartment, but there are things more important in a Buyer’s mind:

The view
The location
The bedroom count
The amenities
The condition
The volume of the space
And yes…the “feeling” of the space!

This hasn’t stopped some appraisers (turned analysts, turned investors) from continuing to use size as the determining factor in value.

Absurd!

(This is why the CORE Realtime Report doesn’t include square feet as a barometer of value).

Perhaps it is our need as an industry (or the desire of the media) to assimilate Real Estate to Wall Street.

But the two are fundamentally different.