Is this the way the world ends...not with a whimper but a bang?

The NY Times notes that the recently announced $5 billion planned sale of Stuyvesant Town and Cooper Village is one of the largest property transactions in US history. Does this deal mark the top of the housing market, where even Manhattan real estate is vulnerable? Will history look upon this deal as the AOL-Time Warner or RJR Nabisco of the residential property boom?