NEW YORK CITY-Real estate brokers are in a glass-is-half-empty kind of place. The community had a dip in confidence in the current real estate market in the third quarter of 2013, compared to the previous quarter, because of concerns about residential inventory and political uncertainty. The city's brokers also lowered expectations for their six-month outlook, even though they reported strong confidence in present financing conditions, according to the Real Estate Board of New York's Real Estate Broker Confidence Index.

The Overall Broker Confidence Index decreased to 8.75 in the third quarter from 8.89 last quarter. “There's a growing concern that there haven't been enough condo units built and, as a result, there isn't a lot of choice for prospective buyers,” REBNY SVP Michael Slattery tells GlobeSt.com.

“Brokers are frustrated, new product tends to raise the value of properties in the facility of the project and that may help to shake out the adjacent properties,” he says. “We've been hearing it a lot from the brokers, yet a record number of sales closed in the third quarter. I think what's happening is that these units are being gobbled up so quickly that they don't even hit the market, so the sales don't alleviate the stress for brokers. Nothing they see is available or suitable, and they're waiting for something else to appear but it never shows up.”