A report from the New York Post. "Don’t believe the brochures. A Billionaire’s Row apartment can be a terrible investment. Roughly 16,000 apartments were bought and resold in New York from 2014 through 2018. Of those, 1,295 homes — 7.7 percent — sold at an outright loss. But a whopping 39 percent of the 66 luxury condos that were bought and resold in Midtown during this time lost money, according to StreetEasy. In fact, across all neighborhoods, the city’s priciest properties saw losses."

"'One of the things that I struggle to wrap my head around is why people continue to park money in high-end New York real estate when it’s not a very lucrative asset class,' said Grant Long, senior economist at StreetEasy. 'You just have to assume someone like Ken Griffin [who recently dropped a record-breaking $250 million on an apartment at 220 Central Park South] isn’t very interested in seeing his money back. An apartment like that isn’t liquid.'"

"The current correction in the market is 'driven by sentiment rather than data or some kind of event,' added Leonard Steinberg of Compass, a residential brokerage. 'We had market razzmatazz between the years of 2011 and 2016. There was an extraordinary escalation of asset prices and in some cases it was justified and in a lot of cases it wasn’t.'"

"'Everything about real estate losses or gains is about timing,' Steinberg said. 'People say, ‘I thought real estate in Manhattan was a secure, 100 percent bet.’ But if you pay a premium for anything, you better be prepared to hold onto it for a long time.'"

"In March of 2018, an entity controlled by one Mohammed al Saud sold two adjacent units on the 63rd floor of One57 for a total of $44.5 million — after having paid nearly $59.7 million for the apartments in 2014. Paul Adams, the CEO of Monroe Capital, picked up an 1888 town house for $13.7 million in 2017. But he ­unloaded it for just $9.5 million in November."

"Although Adams did not respond to request for comment regarding the sale, it’s safe to say that he lost by flipping the home in less than a year. Moreover, the luxury town-house market in Manahttan is particularly weak as of late. The median sales price fell 9 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to Douglas Elliman."

From Mansion Global. "A renovated 42nd-floor apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has been listed for $21.5 million, down from $30 million when it was first listed in September 2017. The current owners bought the corner unit at Trump International Hotel and Tower in 2013 for $16.25 million and spent $2,500 per square foot—just shy of $12 million—on a three-year renovation, according to the listing agents."

"The lowered price is a response to the changing marketplace. 'The market ' has adjusted over the last 18 months,' said listing agent Noble Black of Douglas Elliman. 'Two years ago it was definitely a stronger market.'"