What Wall Street Money?

For a while I thought that Wall Street bonuses were driving property values higher in the City. However, this year, except for maybe a few hedge fund managers, I don’t think there was much bonus money to distribute. For one, the past 12 months have been pretty poor for underwriting. As a result, I don’t think that a significant amount of new stock and bond placement fees (underwriting) were generated. Also, the stock market has been in a rut for probably about the past 12 months with no volatility. When there is a lack of volatility in the stock market, that means there are fewer opportunities for traders to trade. Maybe some other sectors of Wall Street are doing particularly well that I am unaware of.


"Look, up in the air! Is it a bubble? Is it froth? It's Manhattan real estate prices.
But if there is kryptonite out there that could bring the gravity-defying housing market crashing to earth, it has not surfaced yet, as sales prices for apartments hit new highs last month.

The median price for all sales in Manhattan that closed last month was $750,000, which was 23 percent higher than the median price for May 2004, according to a monthly market report prepared by Halstead Property, a real estate brokerage.
The average price also reached a new high, at $1,276,202, which was 34 percent higher than the average price the same month a year ago. The report is based on 674 sales of co-ops and condos.

Sales in May were generally the product of contracts signed two or three months earlier, so the figures most accurately reflect market conditions in the first few months of the year."