"We don't have the pipeline of future deals that are going to be close to what we had for the third quarter," he said.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 14 percent in the third quarter, the most since 2008, amid concern that the U.S. could enter another recession.
"The whole market started to come down, and the high-end was part of that slowdown," Rosenblatt said.
Rubicon's Haber expects he won't be spending as much time on luxury deals in the coming months. The supply isn't there to fuel continued transactions, he said.
One57 Tower
One builder hoping to capitalize on a shortage of high-end apartments is Extell Development Co. The 95 units in the company's One57 tower near Carnegie Hall will range from $3,500 to $8,000 a square foot when sales officially begin later this month, according to Extell President Gary Barnett. The website for the 90-story project asks potential buyers to register and choose a price range from $5 million to $30 million and above.
One57, slated to become New York City's tallest residential building upon completion in 2013, has little competition for high-end buyers, according to Barnett.
"Everything that people are talking about coming to market is at least two years behind our project," he said. "I expect to be sold out by then."
Haber said One57's units may be of "great interest" to luxury apartment hunters.
"When I first saw those figures, I thought to myself, here's a building for the 1 percent of the 1 percent," the broker said. "But guess what? Those are the people doing the frenetic buying."