For almost as long as Patinella and Evageliou could remember, apartment prices in New York had only moved in one direction: upward and out of their reach. “Long ago, it had crossed past the point at which any of it was connected to reality, as far as I was concerned,” Evageliou said one recent Saturday morning, as he and his wife reflected on the sudden, nerve-racking, and tantalizing possibility of turnabout. Over the course of the last year, amid terrifying economic indicators, the couple has been scouring sale listings and tromping through open houses all over the city. As real-estate disasters mount around them, casting shadows across a thicket of glass towers full of empty million-dollar condos, Patinella and Evageliou—like many New Yorkers—see a redemptive glimmer of justice, and just maybe a buying opportunity.
It’s easy to imagine why. Home values are dropping everywhere, not just in quintessential bubble markets like Las Vegas and Phoenix, but in sociologically similar locales like San Francisco, where prices have fallen by a third over the last year, according to the Case-Shiller index. In New York, the plunge hasn’t happened yet; instead, the market has ground to a halt. Many sellers have dropped their asking prices to levels not seen for a few years, but the reductions can’t keep up with the savings expectations of would-be buyers.
New York City 2010
