The week in real estate market reports

The year-end numbers for New York City’s real estate market are mostly down, or flat, in 2016. The number of luxury contracts are down 18 percent, one and two-bedroom rents are down 7.4 and 8 percent, and overall growth was a mere 1.7 percent, the weakest in 20 U.S. urban markets.

Residential

Manhattan Luxury Contracts: Olshan Realty
Contracts out on luxury homes dropped 18 percent to 1,102 in 2016, for a total of $8.9 billion. Co-op sales above $4 million dropped 25 percent, and homes stayed on the market for an average of 318 days, 30 percent more than in 2015. Read the full report here.

U.S. home prices: S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices
Nationally, home prices were up 5.4 in October year-over-year, but in New York, the growth rate is a laggard 1.7 percent, the weakest of 20 metro areas. Read the full report here.

NYC price index: StreetEasy
Median rent in Manhattan increased 1.9 percent in November year-over-year to $3,245, while resale prices rose just half a percent. Read the full report here.

New home sales: U.S. Census Bureau
New home sales in November came to a total of 592,000, up 5.2 percent compared to October and 16.5 percent compared to November 2015. Read the full report here.

Manhattan absorption report: Halstead Property
The absorption rate in Manhattan declined from 5.2 to 5.1 in December, but remained 35 percent higher than a year ago. Read the full report here.

National rent report: Zumper
New York rents declined over the past year, with one bedroom apartments dipping 7.4 percent, and two bedrooms falling 8 percent, the largest decline in the top 10 U.S. markets. Read the full report here.

Commercial

U.S. office statistics: JLL
In the fourth quarter of 2016, office vacancy in Manhattan hit 10.4 percent, with an average price per square foot at $73, down .07 percent from the previous quarter. Read the full report here.