NEW YORK CITY-While Manhattan remains vastly different from the rest of the universe, the city is fighting headwinds in the backbone of its economy, the financial services sector. This and more information will be shared by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers in its 2012 “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report, which will be presented to the Bar Association of New York City on Thursday morning.

The report shows that Manhattan shows a “remarkable resilience” buttressed by one of the world’s best-educated and high-paid workforce, but a transaction pause may be in order in lieu of the economic turmoil on Wall Street. “The only way to justify office prices assumes rents skyrocketing to unlikely heights, and broker happy talk doesn’t hide most employers’ reluctance to add bodies,” ULI says.

At the same time, Manhattan remains the #4 market in the nation, leading in sectors such as hospitality, tourism and multifamily. The city boasts the highest in the country apartment occupancies, which could vault rental rates to record levels, according to ULI. In turn, outer-ring suburban markets in Northern New Jersey, Westchester, Fairfield and Long Island have gained from their proximity to New York.