You have to be a millionaire to afford the average Manhattan apartment, according to the latest quarterly report prepared for Prudential Douglas Elliman by Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal firm.
The average sales price of a Manhattan apartment in the second quarter of this year soared to a record-high $1.05 million, or 4.9 percent above the $998,905 average price for the first quarter of this year and 29.9 percent higher than the average price in the second quarter of 2003.
The average sales price of a luxury apartment, defined as the top 10 percent of all sales, increased 3.8 percent from the prior quarter to $3.79 million. The average sales price of Manhattan co-ops, meanwhile, increased 9.7 percent over the prior quarter to $907,654.
Inventory, meanwhile, increased to 5,211 in the second quarter from 4,299 at the end of the prior quarter, but is 14 percent below inventory levels in the second quarter of 2003, the report states. And the average time it takes to sell a Manhattan apartment increased from 98 days in the first quarter of this year to 105 days in the second quarter, compared with 142 days in the second quarter of 2003.
The average sales price increased to record levels for studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, while the average sales price for four-bedroom units dropped 2.4 percent from the first quarter of this year.
The report also found that the average sales price of loft apartments dropped 6.3 percent from the prior quarter, to $1.47 million, and the average size of loft apartments sold during the second quarter dropped 10.8 percent from the 2,077 square foot average in the first quarter of the year.
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