New York City, the nation’s largest city with about 8.4 million people, continued to grow steadily. The city’s population expanded 0.5% in 2009, compared with 0.4% a year earlier but down from 0.7% in 2007. The recession has prevented people moving to the suburbs to buy homes. This keeps people in larger cities and draws new ones in. Is this good for large city real estate? We think it is. When pricing is mostly determined by supply and demand, rising demand can only help pricing. While the luxury market stands to benefit most, one cannot help wondering how much ‘affordable’ rental property will be needed over the next 10 years to satisfy demand.