New York

Like a nagging case of "pneumonia" that brings with it random, yet inevitable, bouts of full-body paralysis, the rumors/threats of Hillary tossing her hat in the ring for the New York City Mayoral race simply won't go away.  The latest example comes from a Quinnipiac University Poll which analyzed a hypothetical head-to-head match-up between Clinton and New York's current mayor, Bill de Blasio.  Unfortunately for de Blasio, the poll found that, while he would beat almost everyone else whose name has been mentioned as potential contender, he would almost certainly be crushed by Hillary. 

When Douglas Eilliman released their 3Q 2016 recap of Manhattan real estate sales, it basically showed that pricing held up during the quarter as sellers refused to lower their asks but the number of closings collapsed as buyers started to back away from a market that was starting to look bubbly.  Here was our conclusion at the end of 3Q:

There is little doubt that easy access to federally subsidized student loans has contributed to the astronomical increase in the cost of attending college in the United States.  After all, what 18 year old would turn down $200,000 in free money to party for 4 years?  As an added bonus, when you figure out upon graduation that your degree in anthropology if fairly worthless, you can always just move back in with mom and force taxpayers to pick up your debt burden.  Anything less would be a substantial "triggering" event and we just can't have that.

Luxury real estate broker Olshan Realty, Inc. has some bad news for New York's hedge fund managers looking to dump their luxury $5 million, 1,500 square foot palaces as the market for luxury New York City real estate just might be on the verge of collapse.  Accroding to a year end report published by Olshan, contracts for luxury co-ops (defined as those with an asking price above $4mm) collapsed 25% in 2016 while the average number of days that apartments sat on the market surged 31% and discounts to original listing price also jumped a point to 6%.

Submitted by Dmitri Speck via Acting-Man.com,

Deutsche Bank Caves In

Deutsche Bank trader: “u just said u sold on fix.”

Answer UBS trader: “yeah, we smashed it good.”