Manhattan Real Estate Market Report - 3rd Quarter 2009

Significant findings in Q3 2009

CLOSING PRICES CONTINUE TO DECLINE FROM A YEAR AGO. Condo and co-op resale median prices have declined since last quarter and are still significantly down from a year ago. The overall average Manhattan sale price (which includes: condo resales, co-op resales, and new development closings) decreased by 2.3% to $1.254M since last quarter, and by 16.4% since last year. Similarly, the overall median Manhattan sale price declined by 0.3% since last quarter to $760K, and by 11.6% since last year.

• Condo resale median prices increased by 5.3% since last quarter to $937,500, but decreased by 14.6% since last year. Average price ($1.471M) is up 11.1% for the quarter but down 26.2% since last year.
• Co-op resale median prices decreased by 2.1% to $575K compared to last quarter and by 11.5% since last year. Average sales price ($878K) decreased by 4.3% since last quarter and by 21.3% since the prior year.
• New Developments median sales price increased by 1.8% since last quarter to $1.212M and by 24.3% since last year. Average sales price ($1.77M) also increased by 1.8% since last quarter and by 23.1% since last year.

VOLUME OF RESALE CLOSINGS INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY. The number of closings has increased by 68.4%, from the 2,040 closings of last quarter, but is down by 21.7% from a year ago. Co-op resales have increased by 85% since last quarter and condo resales have increased by 75% since last quarter. The number of new development closings increased by 31% since last quarter but is still down by 65.3% since a year ago. New development closings made up 18.8% of the closings while co-op resales dominated activity at 54.9%.

INVENTORY STEADILY DECLINES. Inventory of available listings in Manhattan declined steadily since it peaked around 11,800 units in mid-May. At the time of this report, inventory is currently at 10,163 units. According to our listings database, an average of 314 new listings came onto market every week in this quarter, a decrease of 13.5% since last quarter, which averaged 363 new listings per week. Condos made up 52.1% of all available listings on market this quarter (co-ops 47.3%, townhouses 0.6%). Inventory levels this quarter are 24.6% higher than they were a year ago.

CONTINUED INCREASE IN NEW CONTRACTS. This quarter, there were 2,632 listings that went into contract, a 6.3% increase from last quarter’s number of new contracts (2,477). Additionally, there were 142 broken contracts, a 7.6% increase compared to last quarter’s 132.

FEWER PRICE CUTS. This quarter, 36.1% of all Manhattan listings had price cuts, a total of 5,363. Of all available listings for condos this quarter, there were about 2,400 condo listings with price cuts, a 1.9% decrease since last quarter but 72.4% more cuts since last year. Co-ops had about 2,900 cuts, a 4.4% decrease in the number of price cuts since last quarter but 77.2% more cuts than a year ago. The average price cut this quarter for condos was 8.4%, and for co-ops, the average cut was 8.1%.

LISTINGS SPEND A LONGER TIME ON MARKET FROM A YEAR AGO. The average time on market for condo resale listings decreased by 3.7% since last quarter but increased by 9.1% since last year, while co-ops sat on the market for 1.7% longer than last quarter, and 19.4% longer than the prior year. This quarter, condo resales stayed on the market for an average of 126 days, while co-op resales were on the market for an average of 120 days.

source: StreatEasy