The southern views from the 88th floor of 520 Fifth Avenue, on West 43rd Street, are divine. You face the Empire State Building’s spire and Manhattan’s tapering tip, jutting into New York Harbor, as well as the Statue of Liberty and beyond. But this new condominium features more than a godly cityscape. The 1,002-foot tower also offers a unique vantage point on Manhattan’s evolving real-estate market.
No investment is a sure thing, and New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent bid to raise taxes on billionaires—or on high-value homes, or both—is only the latest threat to local property values. But New York apartments remain resilient, banking on the hardest of assets: schist. Hemmed in by water yet easily navigable, rooted in bedrock that allows it to soar ever higher, Manhattan real estate is sui generis—about as close to a sure thing as exists.