Yes, New York's known as a safe haven for capital, but analysts say you may have been better off investing in the S&P 500 than NYC real estate—over the last decade, anyway.

Real Estate analysts at CityRealty examined a collection of 100 prominent Manhattan apartment buildings. Looking at the 10-year compounded annual growth rate, these fancy condos yielded 4.5%, almost a full percentage point behind the S&P 500’s 5.4% increase over the same period.

Does this mean S&P 500 stocks offer a better investment than gateway city real estate? While the data sheds some interesting light, the findings aren't absolute.

For one, there is no way to sell shares in CityRealty’s basket of 100 luxury buildings. Secondly, the data is also skewed due to the limited number of transactions and the trend to build increasingly expensive apartments.

And there's the most important distinction: you can’t live in a luxury S&P 500 stock. [Bloomberg]