In addition to sales rising 4.1% to 11,927, other key metrics that saw increases as compared to last year include listing inventory spiking 5.1% higher to 5,393, days on market rising from 89 to 101 days and the listing discount growing from 3.2% in 2016 to 5.3% at the end of 2017. It should be noted that 2017 sales activity was 11.2% below the sales record set in 2007.

Sales activity and other market metrics for the niche townhouse market in Manhattan were mixed. However, price trend indicators set new records last year in Northern Manhattan, where the median sale price reached $2.2 million, up 4.8% from 2016 and the average sale price rose 6.2% to $2,236,970.

“What we saw in 2017 was that the inventory of townhouses on the market shrank as sellers pulled their overpriced properties,” says Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel Inc., the author of the sales reports. “While Northern Manhattan townhouses set new price trend records and the average of luxury prices per square foot rose, the number of sales of townhouses fell sharply.”

In fact, both townhouse prices and sales declined in 2017—the median sales price fell 6.7% to $4,637,500 as compared to 2016 and the number of sales dropped 18.3%% to 250 transactions. One bright spot was that the average price per-square-foot for a Manhattan townhouse increased 4.7% to $1,667 last year. The average sale price also increased 5% to $6,559,813.

Speaking to Miller's statement on declining inventory, the Douglas Elliman report states that inventory fell 13.9% to 354 units, due at least in part to over-priced listings being taken off the market. The brokerage firm says that the days on market fell from 164 in 2016 to 140 at year's-end 2017. The listing discount increased from 10% the previous year to 10.4% in 2017.