Posted by Leonard Steinberg on May 30th, 2014

Todays screeching headlines generated by a report from STREETEASY that Manhattan condominium prices registered their biggest monthly decrease in almost four years last month is further proof that information without insight is useless.

According to the Streeteasy report, the median condo price fell 1.4% in April to $1.3 million, while the median price per square foot stood at $1,339/sf. If anyone were to look at this closely they would conclude that if the price per square foot remained stable, the valuator that is most critical to real estate pricing, Manhattan did not “REGISTER THE BIGGEST PRICE DECREASE IN FOUR YEARS!!!!!”…..as the sensationalist, attention-grabbing headline suggests.

Streeteasy failed to remind its audience that in the first quarter of 2014 the median pricing jumped 16.9%: of course there would be a pull back from that huge figure…..but I guess making headlines is more important?

This is further proof how information left unexplained, or worse, manipulated to garner attention, is useless…..and potentially damaging. We are all a little  responsible for this irresponsible shallowness that has invaded our planet. Every time we click on a picture of KIMYE’s wedding, we encourage other trolls to make BS NEWS. So the reality is the MEDIAN Manhattan average sales price slipped for one month after an insane spike the prior quarter, but the actual VALUE of real estate has remained constant with the average median price per square foot remaining even…..whatever ‘average’ means in a city where some apartments sell for $ 500,000 and others sell for $ 50 million.