The Observer takes a look back at the trajectory of New York's glassiest condos of the Aughts, tracing the bricks-and-mortar "tastes of a 27-year-old VP at Goldman Sachs" back to September 11, 2001: "Companies fled, especially from downtown; and borrowing money became much easier for both home buyers and the people building the homes—the Fed, for instance kept the federal funds rate at 0 for nearly three years after the attacks." Brokers, too, were living the high life, like the case of ex-Master of the Fucking Universe Michael Shvo, once profiled on Nightline with breathless attention to his "real estate assassin" exploits.
· Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel: “It created this unnatural affordability for housing. If we did not have 9/11, we would have probably gone into an expanding recession; and the Fed would have probably lowered rates to respond."
· "In 2006, 57 percent of all Manhattan apartment sales were just newly built condos."
· "More than 6.5 million square feet of office space in lower Manhattan alone was converted to condos in the decade after the attacks, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle—more than three Empire State Buildings."
· As for the Shvo-ster, the pink paper reports that emails "to an account that was once hopping were not returned. And a phone call to his offices was answered thusly: 'At the subscriber’s request, this phone does not accept incoming calls.'"
· Glass Action: The Condo Since 9/11 [New York Observer]
· Michael Shvo coverage [Curbed]
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