A report from Forbes. "In mid-2015, New York City made headlines for hosting two condominium developments offering, in addition to a variety of ultra-luxurious amenities, the extremely rare bonus feature of on-site parking. The price tag attached to what DNAinfo referred to at the time as the new 'ultimate status symbol' was a cool $1 million. One building offered three of these spaces as add-ons in conjunction with a penthouse purchase, while the other had a handful available on a first-come, first-served basis. It was just one more piece of evidence to the collective population that you really cannot go wrong with New York City real estate."

"Except, oddly enough, the way the headlines read these days, it appears that you can. Every news outlet that covers housing is carrying headlines about New York City and its alleged housing bubble. In fact, I've seen search engines pushing old content about New York and a housing bubble to the top of the results."

"Nearly regardless of the actual content of the research cited in these articles, much of which is sound, the headlines scream, 'Watch Out for These 20 Bubble Housing Markets,' 'U.S. Housing Bubble Crash Begins in New York' and 'NYC Market Saturated.' These headlines started in 2016, and they’ve done nothing but build momentum since the Big Apple market has, indeed, begun to level off."

"Historically, real estate investors considered real estate and real-estate-related assets somewhat insulated from the swings of consumer sentiment. Sure, the stock market could swing from the skies to the depths and back again because Wall Street investors were 'nervous' about something that hadn’t even happened yet, but real estate was different. It was 'real,' and that meant it did not fluctuate based on fear factors and consumer confidence to the same degree that other investment vehicles might."

"Now, however, our real estate market is different. According to the National Association of Realtors, the vast majority of homeowners (84% in 2017) considered homeownership to be a sound investment. Reasons for this included general consensus that money spent on housing built the homeowner’s wealth and that owning a home at the point of retirement was extremely important. Most also stated they believed homeownership to be 'a good investment opportunity to build long-term wealth and increase net worth.'"

"These are all good ways to look at homeownership and to look at real estate investing, but when homeowners begin to view their family’s household shelter as an investment, it changes everything because it vastly expands the 'investing' population and changes how those homeowners make housing decisions."

"For example, they may choose to sell sooner, list lower or higher, or hold longer for reasons outside of household preference. Suddenly, there are many, many more players in this game, and not all are immune to the tempting and dangerous allure, the fear factor of consumer sentiment, confidence indices and, of course, high-speed asset liquidation when things look stormy. That, my friends, changes the face of our industry."

"Thanks to technology, digital connections and more information than most of us know what to do with on nearly every topic and perspective imaginable, real estate is no longer immune to the sentimental swings that the industry’s reputation for relative illiquidity initially bought it."

'If you are a real estate investor whose livelihood relies on market savvy, on accurate forecasting, on being ahead of the crowd, then you can no longer afford to look away from the headlines. If there are enough of them, they will very well play a role in shaping your returns."

The Tampa Bay Times in Florida. "Less than a month ago, an investor paid $511,200 for a unit in Tampa Bay's newest condo tower, ONE St. Petersburg. This week, she sold it — for $702,000."

"Though the 41-story tower in downtown St. Petersburg is not yet finished, several buyers already have moved in while others hope to quickly flip their units — at hefty profits — as the bay area's luxury condo boom continues unabated."

"'There are definitely people who bought to resell,' said Peggy Naruns, a Realtor who has a listing in ONE. 'We expect that between 15 and 30 units will (soon) be available, with price increases of around 40 percent.'"

"Among the units that have changed hands is one bought for $657,400 and sold for nearly $900,000. Under contract is a 12th-floor condo that originally sold for $922,500 and is now listed at $1.2 million."

"New condo projects in Tampa have generated similar enthusiasm. Two months after sales began last year at Virage on Bayshore Boulevard, more than half of the 71 units were under contract. All 32 units have been spoken for at Aquatica, also under construction on Bayshore. And reservations for condos in downtown's Riverwalk Place have been so brisk that developers decided to make the 50-plus story tower all residential instead of mixed use as originally planned."

"Naruns said the price increases aren't out of line, given the demand for high-end condos and especially for newer ones. The only other condo tower built close to Beach Drive within the last two years is Bliss, on Fourth Avenue N. There, a couple paid $1.6 million in August for a unit that had sold a year earlier for $979,900."

"'That's an amazing markup,' Naruns said."