The region's weighted average cap rate on apartment properties reported closed or under contract is 4.6%, compared with a national average of 5.88%, according to RCA. The median cap rate for the region is 5.29%, compared to 6.23% nationally. The per-unit price for New York metro apartment building sales YTD averages $22,221, while nationally the average figure is $94,607.

Looking at the numbers on individual sales both regionally and locally suggests that growth is continuing, albeit modestly. In its monthly housing market report for December 2007, released earlier this month, Radar Logic Inc. found that the New York metro area's price per sf on residential space grew by 1.4% compared to a year earlier. That puts the region's price per-sf growth in fourth place behind Milwaukee at 4.9%, Washington, DC at 2.4% and Charlotte, NC at 2.1%. The New York metro area's average per-sf price of $286.26 is also the fourth highest in the nation, according to Radar Logic. However, unlike the prices in the three priciest metro areas—San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles—it went up rather than down compared to December 2006.

In Prudential Douglas Elliman's quarterly overview of Manhattan co-op and condominium sales, the median sales price of a Manhattan apartment for Q4 '07 was $850,000. That's up 6.4% compared to Q4 '06, but down 1.7% from Q3 '07, according to PDE's report, which is prepared by Miller Samuel, a division of Radar Logic. The average Q4 '07 sales price of $1,439,909 was up 17.6% year over year and 5.1% over the previous quarter. Accordingly, the average per-sf price $1,180 was up 18.2% over the Q3 '06 figure of $998 and 3.1% over the Q3 '07 figure of $1,144.