Manhattan apartment sales hit a 32-year high
Photo by Jason Krieger on Unsplash
More apartments sold in Manhattan in the third quarter of 2021 than at any point during the last 30+ years of tracking, a new real estate market report says. According to a Douglas Elliman report published this week, there were 4,523 closed co-op and condos sales in the quarter, more than triple the same period last year and 76.5 percent higher than the same time in 2019. Even more indicative of the market turnaround following Covid-19, this quarter passed the previous sales record of 3,939 reported in the second quarter of 2007. And in its own market report, The Corcoran Group found sales volume in Manhattan topped $9.5 billion, the highest quarterly volume total ever recorded. This passes the previous record of $8.54 billion set in the second quarter of 2019.
The borough’s sales surge was driven by “rising vaccine adoption, low mortgage rates, and improving economic conditions,” as the city recovers from the pandemic, according to the report.
Compared to the condo glut the Manhattan market saw last year largely because of Covid, inventory has fallen significantly. The report sites 7,694 listings this quarter, a decline of 17.4 percent compared to the same time last year. However, inventory remains high when looking at the 10-year average for the third quarter.
Another notable figure from the report is the increase in the number of “bidding wars,” which includes properties sold above the last listing price. Manhattan’s share of bidding wars rose to 8.3 percent, its highest level in three years, but still way below the 31 percent record set in the third quarter of 2015.
“What we’re seeing right now is a catch-up,” Jonathan Miller, the real estate appraiser who authored the report, told the New York Times in an interview. “All the suburbs were booming while Manhattan was seeing sales at half the normal rate last year. Now we’re seeing this massive surge.”
A third-quarter market report from Brown Harris Stevens looked at resale apartments and how the market is favoring sellers. The average price of resale apartments rose for co-ops by 17 roughly percent and for condos by 15 percent compared to last year. Plus, according to the report, sellers received 97.4 percent of their last asking price, the highest percentage in nearly four years.
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