Manhattan sales drop 48%
Real estate brief
By Inman News, Monday, April 6, 2009.Correction: An earlier version of this article contained an incorrect headline. Sales were down 48 percent year-over-year in the first quarter while the median sales price rose 3.1 percent. We apologize for this error.
The number of Manhattan co-op and condo sales sank 47.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, with the median sales price rising 3.1 percent, according to a report prepared for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate by real estate appraisal company Miller Samuel Inc.
Sales were down by the same amount (47.6 percent) compared to the prior quarter, while the median price was down 8.3 percent.
The price changes were dramatically different among new apartments (includes condos and co-ops) and previously owned apartments.
The resale median price ($675,000) dropped 20.8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and was down 7.8 percent from the previous quarter, while the median price of new apartments ($1.51 million) rose 31.4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and was up 19.4 percent compared to the previous quarter.
The average sales price ($1.83 million), meanwhile, was up 6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and rose 22.9 percent from fourth-quarter 2008.
The average price per square foot, at $1,259, was down 2.3 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and up 6.4 percent from the prior quarter.
Days on market (170 days) increased 16.5 percent year-over-year for the first quarter and 7.1 percent from the previous quarter, and the listing inventory was up 34.3 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and up 15 percent compared to fourth-quarter 2008.
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Submitted by Ken Dooley on April 6, 2009 - 3:58am.
Is your headline designed to attract attention or an honest mistake? From your report, sales sank 48%, not prices. Thank you.
My Blog: http://www.KenDooley.com/my-blog/
Submitted by Joseph Rand on April 6, 2009 - 4:33am.
Come on guys, I expect this type of mistake from my local papers, which are always confusing sales transactions with sales prices. According to the report, sales were down 48%, not prices. I expect better from Inman. Could you fix that before you give my friends in the city a heart attack?
The data is interesting enough. We've seen a dramatic decline in the number of sales in Manhattan, without a significant effect on prices yet. That's almost certainly coming.
Submitted by Larry Whited Sr. on April 6, 2009 - 6:21am.
Incorrect headline or not it is about time that the epicenter of this financial melt down finally feels the pain that they exported to the rest of the country for the last 3 years.
Our government should force a clawback on all wall street / financial service company bonuses in the last 3 years and the top executives who lead these companies into this meltdown should be fired.
How can we fire the CEO of GM and not fire the CEO of CitiBank, BofA, AIG, etc?
Larry A. Whited, Sr., CRB, CRS, GRI
President & Founder
www.maxUnet.com & www.WebMLS.net
A Virtual Real Estate Franchise System
** Virtual Is the Future **
P.O. Box 757
West Chester Ohio 45071
Direct - (513) 543-2727 Fax - (513) 297-7497
Submitted by Glenn Roberts Jr. on April 6, 2009 - 6:50am.
The headline was incorrect. Our apologies for the error. Sales were down 48 percent.
Glenn Roberts Jr.
Managing Editor
Inman News
Submitted by Joseph Rand on April 6, 2009 - 9:39am.
Hi Glenn, sorry if my comment was cranky. But when you're up all night with a cold, give up on sleeping, crank up the laptop, pull up your google home page, see that Manhattan prices fell 48%, and go into a coughing fit, it gets one in a bit of a mood....
Thanks for the quick fix. My whole point was that I see misleading headlines and commentary in the local press all the time (confusing, for example, a decline in sales volume with a decline in sales prices; or noting an increase in sales from January to February without recognizing seasonality). For what it's worth, I hold Inman to higher standards.
Submitted by Richard Stabile Bergen County Real Estate on April 6, 2009 - 4:19pm.
Manhattan ran far past all the other markets around the country. You can consider the reasons;
Foreign investors lure to Manhattan while the dollar was low, to own prime property. Wall Street rich pool of buyers and being the blue chip of all markets, it carries through, past the weaker groups. Mainly the money was much more solid than California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and the like. Manhattan was not so sub prime as other areas. It ran off it own steam. However, markets are markets and you can't drop a hydrogen bomb and think you can get out unharmed. Because of it hold over timing, it will correct faster, with more price disparities. It will eventually get in step with the macro. Because of all the new condo’s closing that contracted earlier, which because of lower resale volume will average up the sale prices. This will fade as the pre sales all close. I seen this in some Bergen County towns that had a lot new large homes close that held up average and median prices.