The Real Deal New York

Mayor Bloomberg, in unveiling his $52.2 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2007 on Tuesday, said he expects the city’s housing market to slow considerably. “New York’s real estate market is expected to slow,” Bloomberg announced, “with a 10 percent decline in home prices, a 14 percent decline in home sales over the next few years, and a significant decline in real estate transaction taxes that have buoyed the city’s tax revenue in the last few fiscal years.” The mayor did, however, praise the city’s commercial real estate market, noting that the commercial occupancy rate is “the highest in the nation.” By Tom Acitelli