A report from Bloomberg on New York. "The developer Cary Tamarkin bought at the top of the market. His $50 million purchase in 2014 wasn’t a luxury apartment though; it was a former Catholic school at 555 West End Avenue, on New York’s Upper West Side. Tamarkin and his partner, CL Investment Group of China, decided to convert the building into 13 luxury condominiums. They later announced that the apartments’ prices would start at $7.9 million, and construction began in late 2015."

"Tamarkin was not in a cave and is not blind to the market. 'There’s a huge amount of very expensive penthouse apartments that are lingering on the market,' he says. 'There’s still a group of buyers in that price range, but the reason [apartments] are lingering, to my mind, is because the economy is questionable, and buyers don’t have to make a decision quickly these days unless there’s a sense of urgency.'"

"Yet, Tamarkin’s building will begin sales next week with prices that land squarely in the market’s weak zone. Given that Tamarkin acknowledges New York’s 'glut of high end apartments,' it would stand to reason that he’d pivot to cheaper, smaller apartments instead. He admits that if he did so, the units would probably move faster. He’s sticking with the original plan, he says, because he believes that his building is unique. 'I’m banking on it being very special,' he says."

"The building will have a 24-hour doorman, fitness centre, recreation room, bike storage, and individual storage units. 'When I walked through it recently, I thought: We should actually raise prices,' Tamarkin says. 'Not by being a greedy developer, but because we think the value is there.'"

"That assertion remains to be battle-tested by the New York’s current real estate market, which shows no signs of picking up soon. 'Right now, we have something in the order of four years of excess supply,' says appraiser Jonathan Miller. 'Even though developers are aware of the competition, it still feels like the same dialogue from five years ago, which is: ‘But I’m different.’"

The Orange County Register in California. "An oceanfront palazzo in Laguna Beach’s secluded Irvine Cove that hit the market five years ago for $65 million sold this month for $32.7 million. The asking price dropped several times since 2013, and was entered into the Multiple Listing Service on Sept. 12, the day the house sold, at $38.9 million."

"The estate, with 17,000 square feet of living space, is one of only five homes directly above the sand in the guard-gated community. Completed in 2010, the main house at 2585 Riviera has towering glass doors and a foyer with terrazzo floors inspired by those at the Getty Villa in Malibu."