Radar Logic Rolls out Manhattan Home Price Indices

Radar Logic Inc. said Tuesday morning that it had began publishing daily residential price indices for eight Manhattan neighborhoods: Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Midtown/Clinton, Murray Hill/Gramercy, Chelsea/West Village, East Village/Lower East Side, SoHo/Tribeca and the Financial District. The indices are the first to track a locale at the neighborhood level, in HousingWire’s view. Last year, the firm introduced the Residential Property Index, or RPX, an index that tracks daily residential real estate prices across 25 different metropolitan statistical areas. The RPX provides a futures trading instrument used by many hedge funds and institutional investors to hedge their mortgage-related bets; the RPX in particular has become a popular source of hedging for distressed mortgage investors purchasing whole loans. Trading volume in financial instruments based on the RPX — including swaps, forward contracts, options and structured notes — is now approaching $2 billion, Radar Logic said. The company said it developed the RPX Manhattan Neighborhood Prices in response to “demand by investors and real estate professionals seeking innovative ways to focus returns and manage risk”. More granular indices allow investors and developers to tailor their positions in RPX-based financial products for applications related to particular real estate assets, company officials told HW. Radar Logic intends to expand neighborhood offerings to other RPX MSAs in the near future, as well; the company did not specific which local markets may be next. “We are very pleased with the accelerating interest in RPX and the growing liquidity in the market,” said Michael Feder, CEO of Radar Logic. “The introduction of Manhattan Neighborhood Prices is one more step toward making real estate a truly tradable asset class.” For more information, visit http://www.radarlogic.com.