Miller Smacks Down Bloomberg

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January 23, 2006 | 4:11 a.m.

That's Jonathan Miller, New York's resident real-estate expert, not the Gifford of days past. Michael Bloomberg issued a doomsday statement on the New York real-estate market to Reuters this weekend:

"The real estate market is slowing down dramatically and we're going to have a problem down the road," Bloomberg said.

But the statement, which responds to one of Jonathan Miller's regular reports, prepared for Douglas Elliman, doesn't support Bloomberg's gloom, Miller argues on his Web log, Matrix: Why, then, make a pronouncement that could be a self-fulfilling prophecy? Miller:

'From a political perspective, the city is running a large surplus ($3B) coming in part from the taxes paid by the housing sector and one could speculate he is positioning himself in the next fiscal year to lower the expectations of those would like to spend it.'

Hmm ... - Tom McGeveran