From the May issue: The first-quarter market reports released last month by the city’s major residential firms yielded few shockers. With sales volume largely unchanged from last year, industry experts agreed that the market is generally stable.
But the data did bring one unexpected twist: an unusual spike in the number of co-ops sold.
The first quarter saw “an unusually high” number of co-op transactions versus condos, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel and the preparer of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s market report.
“Co-ops are seeing a burst of activity, and condos are seeing a sharp drop,” Miller said.
Elliman’s report found 1,430 closed sales of co-ops in the first quarter, surging 28.7 percent from 1,111 in the same period of last year. Condo sales, meanwhile, dropped 24.3 percent to 964 from 1,273 in the prior-year quarter. [more]
