For months, real estate insiders have championed the strength of Manhattan’s high-end condominium market, but according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of fourth-quarter city deeds, that hasn’t compensated for dismal results on the lower end of the island’s condo spectrum.

While the fourth-quarter is historically a slower sales season, volume is down 12 percent this year from the prior-year quarter. That decline was keyed by plummeting sales figures for condos, as co-op sales figures were short just 1.3 percent from last year’s fourth-quarter.

Overall, closed condo sales sunk 24 percent from the final three months of 2010, and more than 30 percent for sales worth less than $1 million. [more]

Click image to enlarge (credit: Streeteasy.com)Manhattan condominium sales prices in October decreased 0.1 percent from the previous month, and rose by the same amount on a year-over-year basis, according to the Streeteasy.com’s Manhattan condo market index released today.
Sales volume for condos decreased 7.9 percent compared to September and stood at exactly the same level as October 2010.

Streeteasy.com set the market index baseline of 1,000 on January 2000, and the index measures returns on Manhattan condos since that date. In October it stood at 1,891. It peaked in March 2008 at 2,164. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

Manhattan condominium prices climbed 9.4 percent in August, compared to the same month a year earlier, according to Radar Logic’s monthly Manhattan condo market report. Transactions borough-wide increased 12.8 percent during that time, as well (see full report after the jump). But, despite this recovery from 2009, activity and pricing are still a far cry from pre-crash levels, according to the report. This year, through Aug. 31, has posted the second-lowest transaction count that Radar Logic has ever recorded. TRD [more]

From the South Florida website: Realtors say that the buzz over new Miami Heat members LeBron James and
Chris Bosh is helping the four condo towers near the American Airlines
Arena. “You can call the sales office and sometimes not get through to
anyone because they’re so busy,” said Lori Ordover, director of sales
for Africa Israel USA, developer of the Marquis. “That bodes well for
what’s going to happen this season.” Russell Wright, who bought the
penthouse unit at the Marquis for $4.2 million, said he chose the
building partly for its location. Wright has floor seats for Heat games. The New York City real estate community was whipped into a similar tizzy earlier this year when James was rumored to be considering a deal with the Knicks.

[more]

Condominium unit sales in Manhattan dropped 34 percent from the end of June to the end of July, the largest decline for this time of year since real estate data and analytics company Radar Logic began keeping records in 2000. The decline followed a 27 percent increase in condo sales from the end of May to the end of June, which was the largest May-to-June increase ever seen by Radar Logic, according to a company report released today. “These market dynamics were caused by a surge in condo sales at the low end of the spectrum during the month of June and a subsequent correction during July,” the report says. The Financial District experienced the highest decline in sales transactions, with a 48.7 percent decrease in July, compared to June. The East Village and Lower East Side together also saw a sharp decline of 48.3 percent in condo sales transactions between June and July. However, the third quarter overall saw an uptick in home sales activity, as a relatively slow rate of new inventory
helped drive Manhattan home prices upward, as The Real Deal reported last week. TRD

[more]

The amount of Manhattan condominium unit transactions increased 80.4 percent in March compared to the same month a year earlier, according to real estate research firm Radar Logic (see full report). This growth was due to the 146 percent uptick in the number of existing home sales, according to Radar Logic’s monthly market report, which showed that new unit sales actually decreased 31 percent year-over-year. In total, sales of new units comprised 14 percent of Manhattan condo sales in March. Only two Manhattan neighborhoods that Radar Logic tracks, the Upper West Side and East Village/Lower East Side, showed a year-over-year uptick in price, according to the report, increasing 4 percent and 3.2 percent year-over-year, respectively. TRD

RPXManhattanNeighborhoodsReportforMarch2010

[more]

After a tidal wave of complaints from buyers trying to renege on contracts in 2009, data from the state attorney general’s office show that the number of deposit refund requests has shriveled in the first quarter of the year, according to Crain’s. Just 43 complaints for condo deposit refunds were filed in the first three months of 2010, a figure that pales in comparison to 2009′s total of 475 such filings. While this might be interpreted as a positive sign for the market, real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey said it might have more to do with the relative dearth of buyers in 2009. “The era of wanting a deposit back is ending,” Bailey said. “That’s because hardly anybody has signed new contracts in the last year.”

Sales summary for the last 12 months. Click chart for larger version. (source: Yale Robbins)

The Manhattan condo sales market showed a steady monthly and year-over-year decline, according to data compiled by Yale Robbins, a real estate publisher and database resource. The number of sales in November 2009, the most recent month for which the data was available, hit 371, down 9 percent from the previous month’s sales total, and down 10 percent year-over-year, according to Yale Robbins’ Condo Sales Report. The Manhattan condo report, which was compiled using the company’s database of approximately 3,300 condos and co-ops, showed that the average sales price of Manhattan condos in November was $1.49 million, down 18 percent from the month before when the average price hit $1.81 million, and down 11 percent from November 2008, when the average sales price was at $1.67 million, according to the report. Also looking at the sales data, the Real Estate Board of New York’s report, released this week, which included quarterly, not monthly data, put the average sales price of Manhattan condos in the fourth quarter at $1.67 million. TRD

If at first you don’t succeed, try flying to China. After boosting its price to $34 million from $25 million in June this year, the brokers behind One York’s penthouse apartment are hitting the road to find buyers. The Tribeca condo building, designed by famed architect Enrique Norten, is cropping up in the South China Morning Post, which reported that the building’s brokers have already spent time in Shanghai and Beijing searching for potential takers.

Once shunned in the down market, pricey condos could be making a comeback. Dolly Lenz, vice chairperson at Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Chloe Malle, a reporter with the New York Observer, debated the issue on CNBC. Lenz argued that buyers are looking at real estate as a long-term investment, but aren’t necessarily climbing over one another to make deals. “We’re seeing a few bidding wars, but that’s not really the norm,” Lenz said. “People are looking at ‘where do I want to live?’ [and] ‘where do I want to be five years from now?’” Malle, on the other hand, said that big financial salaries are ratcheting up condo sales again, even if the kinds of homes being sold differ from the boom years. “This year bonuses are projected to be tantamount to bonuses in 2007,” Malle said. Even so, she added, buyers are “looking for more sound investments.” Reports have surfaced that condo sales are picking up, despite seasonal trends that are typically unfavorable to the winter months.