Residential: Volume Dips as Prices Tick Upward

Manhattan’s for-sale apartment prices keep rising, sales volume is off compared to a year ago and the two factors average out to a residential market that’s healthier than most nationwide. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from a trio of market reports issued earlier this month by residential brokerages.

Both employing data from ValuExchange, Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property reported that the average apartment price in Manhattan was up 36% from Q2 2007 to $1,663,533, while the median price rose 23% year-over-year to $979,000, a new record. Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead, says in a news release that the average price would be up 21% to $1,485,784 if sales at 15 Central Park West and the newly reopened Plaza were taken out of the equation.

Using different sources for its data, the Second Quarter 2008 Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview puts the average sales price for all Manhattan apartments at $1,669,729, up 25.2% from Q2 ’07. For cooperatives, the average sales price is $1,280,201, up 11.2% year over year; for condominiums, it’s up 21.8% to $1,267,000. Representing the upper 10% of both condo and co-op sales, the average price for luxury apartments in Q2 ’08 is $6,364,000, up 38.4% from the same quarter last year.