Manhattan Luxury Market Picks Up. Good News for Katonah Market | Katonah NY Real Estate

The 2010 real estate market in Manhattan will be remembered for slow but steady growth, with luxury sales of $3 million and up finally making a strong return in the final months of the year, according to fourth-quarter market reports to be released on Tuesday.

The steadiness in the market was welcome news for brokers who had spent at least part of last year concerned about a possible double dip in prices.

The median fourth-quarter sales prices, in separate reports compiled by the city’s biggest brokerages and by the real estate Web site Streeteasy.com, ranged from $825,000 to $845,000. Those prices represent increases of 3 percent to 11 percent from the same period in 2009. But average sales prices, which were more affected by the increase in higher-end sales, ranged from $1.37 million to $1.48 million, as much as 14.4 percent higher than last year’s prices.

The prices are still far from the peak of the market in 2008, when the median was close to $1 million and the average over $1.7 million, but they are also up from the bottom of the market, in mid- to late 2009, when the median hovered around $800,000 and the average dipped below $1.3 million.

“The year started out strong and remained really solid, despite some slight bumps along the way,” said Diane M. Ramirez, the president of Halstead Property. In 2009 and early 2010, homebuyer tax credits pushed up sales of studios and one-bedroom apartments. Overall volume slowed significantly during the summer, only to return to more typical levels later in the year.

“Now things are selling across the board at all price points,” Ms. Ramirez said, “and we’re finally seeing a more normal market.”

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