Let’s Make a Deal

Let's Make a Deal [NYTimes] 8/20/2006
"If negotiability can be measured as the difference between the listing price and the selling price, it was 3.5 percent in Manhattan during the second quarter of 2006, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal company. That is higher than the average of 1 percent that held sway at the height of the market in 2004, said Jonathan J. Miller, the company’s president, “but anything under 5 percent still means not much is happening.”

It is also a far cry from the 15 to 20 percent discount off list prices that was the norm during the early 1990’s, he added, meaning that it is not yet a market in which buyers can ask for and get huge concessions. "