NEW YORK CITY-With the state unemployment rate holding the line at 8% and new job growth booming in the city’s emerging Midtown South tech sector, investors looking to buy up core assets in Manhattan can expect less debt and healthier deals going into 2012. During the New York Bar Association’s real property law conference on Thursday afternoon, CBRE’s vice chairman Darcy Stacom explained that despite headwinds from the financial services industry, New York itself will remain a stable location to deploy capital -- even with competition from London, Dubai and Tokyo.

“As tough as it's been, it is not all bad,” Stacom said. “[Financial] earnings last year saw a 30% increase from the previous year. Layoffs are rumored and some of them are happening, but there are no large blocks of space.”

On the Manhattan sales front, deal volume is on the uptick. In 2009, Stacom said there was only one transaction over $500 million, and no deal even close to approaching $1 billion. However, in 2011, the average deal size ranged from $500 million and $1 billion, representing 64% of the total sales market.