Reuters talked to Veronica Hackett, co-founder and managing partner of the Clarett Group, and Jonathan Miller, CEO and president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, about the volume of residential sales in New York City this year. Both Hackett and Miller said the level of activity has has been cut in half compared to last year, and prices have come down. Hackett said that at Clarett she has always tried to price homes in keeping with the market. Miller said developers who started building more recently have higher acquisition and construction costs, and have less room to negotiate prices. Developers also may not be allowed to negotiate if they owe money to lenders.