Manhattan Residential Prices Continue Their Climb (Mostly)
According to Brown Harris Stevens, Manhattan residential prices set a new record in 2015.
New York—Manhattan residential sales prices, already well known for their world-class highs, set new records in 2015, according to the fourth quarter ’15 Manhattan residential market report published by Brown Harris Stevens. Even metrics that weren’t records showed that the market is enjoying robust times in terms of pricing.
For instance, the median price for a resale apartment, $917,075, was up from the previous quarter and from the same period last year, the report noted.
The average price of resale cooperative apartment was $1.25 million, essentially unchanged from the previous quarter but up 8 percent a year ago due largely to three+ bedroom sales. The average price for a resale condo sold in the fourth quarter was $2.03 million, up 8 percent from the same period last year also affected by the sales of larger apartments.
The new records included highest average and median sales prices. The average Manhattan apartment sale price of $1.94 million was up 10 percent from a year ago, and at $1.5 million, the median price increased 18 percent from a year ago. The number of reported closings during Q4, which came in at 2,484, was down 16 percent from the third quarter of 2015 but up 12 percent over the last quarter of 2014.
Condos accounted for half of residential sales, the highest percentage since the first quarter of 2009. The number of new development sales jumped 75 percent over the fourth quarter of 2014 and accounted for 26 percent of all fourth-quarter transactions.
Other report highlights, Brown Harris Stevens said, included that on the East Side, the median price for a resale apartment rose for all size categories except for three+ bedroom. On the West Side, three+ bedrooms saw a 13 percent increase. By contrast, Midtown was the only neighborhood to see a drop in the average price per square foot for a resale condo.
Downtown from 34th to 14th Street saw increases in median prices only for smaller apartments, while Downtown south of 14th Street saw increases for all sizes of apartments. Upper Manhattan experienced substantial median price increases for all sized resale apartments, and the biggest gain in the average resale condo price per square foot, up 26 percent for the year.
