Sales Will Inch Up From Historic Low

NEW YORK CITY- The volume of property sales citywide was lower over the past 12 months than at any time in the past quarter-century. That new low won’t be repeated this year, although the turnover will still scrape along the previous trough, Massey Knakal Realty Services says in its year-end report on the city’s investment sales market.

Based on the low mark of 1.6% turnover among the city’s approximately 165,000 buildings set in 1992 and repeated in the post-recessionary year of 2003, “we assumed 1.6% was the baseline and volume would never go any lower,” Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal, said Tuesday morning at a media briefing. Yet with a turnover rate of 0.87% citywide, “2009 shattered that theory.”

Depending on the borough and property sector, turnover in 2010 will range from 1.2% to 1.6%. “We think we have passed the bottom in terms of low volume,” said Knakal. The yearly average for the past 25 years has been 2.6%.