Car sales, NYC real estate

Car sales better than expected, but the annual rate of growth has slowed and 2016 was up less than .5% vs 2015 year. So if vehicles added less than the year before, something else has to add more than it did the year before, or the annual GDP growth slowed:

Sales for 2016 hit a new annual record.

Sales in 2016 were at 17.465 million, up from the previous record of 17.396 million set last year.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#A7zlBSb83MtA17vJ.99

10406a

Manhattan’s luxury market softened in the fourth quarter, and it isn’t likely to pick up anytime soon

By Robert Frank

Jan 3 (CNBC) — Manhattan real estate sputtered in the fourth quarter, as inflated prices and rising inventories continued to weigh on the high-end market.
The number of residential real estate sales in the borough fell 4 percent year over year in the quarter, to 2,864, according to Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Miller Samuel. While that dip was substantially better than the steep drop in the third quarter, when sales plunged 19 percent on the year, it showed continued softness in the Manhattan market.

Average sale prices notched up 8 percent, to $2.1 million. Median sale prices fell 9 percent, to $1.1 million. Yet even as prices in the luxury market continued to march higher, the number of sales for those properties dipped 3 percent over last year, to 289.