Manhattan Real Estate Market Holds Strong During Spring | Chappaqua Real Estate

StreetEasy reports show Manhattan sales prices are holding strong as inventory continues to decrease in the second quarter. NY1’s Real Estate reporter Jill Urban filed the following report.

Another quarter has come to a close and now it is time to get a look at just where the Manhattan market stands after a busy spring season. The report released by StreetEasy shows the market is holding strong.

“Overall we had a really strong spring selling season. The numbers are showing that median prices have gone up, closing activity has gone up and inventory continues to decline,” says Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy.

The report finds the median sales price for a home in Manhattan is now at $840,000. That’s up almost 2.5 percent. While it doesn’t sound like much, it is significant because it is the fourth month in a row where prices have risen.

“Condo re-sales had the highest gains this quarter, with a 13.6-percent increase in price since last year. Similarly, new developments had a 2.1-percent increase in median closing price. The only sector that had a slight decrease was co-op re-sales and they had 2.6 [percent] in median closing price,” Song says.

That could be credited to the difficulty in financing for a co-op and the larger down payments.

While overall prices are up, inventory continues to decline.

“This quarter we saw a 6-percent decrease compared to a year ago and what’s really significant is that inventory has been declining for the past five consecutive quarters. And so what we are seeing is that time on market for properties has definitely dropped. We also saw a 20-percent decrease in the number of price cuts for listings,” Song says.

Most market data reflects what sold and closed in the last quarter but to understand the real time market activity, you need to look at the number of contracts signed.

“We had a 21-percent increase in contract activity since last year and then a 28-percent increase from last quarter,” Song says. “And this just goes to show that this was a really strong spring selling season.”

Contracts signed jumped in all size categories, but one- and two-bedrooms saw the most activity. The homes currently in contract will likely close next quarter, providing an even fuller picture of how strong the spring season was in just a few months.