Dottie Herman, president
of Prudential Douglas Elliman

Though pricing indicators were mixed, the volume of Manhattan residential sales increased in the third quarter of 2011, creating an overall picture of stability in Manhattan’s residential market, according to quarterly reports issued today by the city’s largest real estate brokerages.

The market’s bright spots included an uptick in sales at the most expensive end of the market — larger or relatively high-end properties (those at $5 million and above) — as well as an overall decrease in inventory, which buoyed prices, and an influx of foreign buyers investing in condominiums, experts said.

The median sales price hardly budged since last year, dropping a mere 0.3 percent to $911,333, an increase of 7.2 percent over the previous quarter, according to a report from Prudential Douglas Elliman. As The Real Deal reported in the October issue, the number of sales rose 16.7 percent year-over-year and 17.2 percent since last quarter, hitting 3,106, the report said. [more]

Co-op and condominium transactions in Manhattan lagged in November, according to data from the New York City Department of Finance. The figures, compiled from deeds and co-op sales documents, show that sales in the first two months of the fourth quarter were more than 25 percent below the first two months of the prior quarter. So far this quarter, the average apartment price was nearly flat while the median price fell 3.9 percent. The median co-op prices fell while the median condo price rose. But according to the Journal, brokers say the local housing market is still faring better than the market across the country, where prices have been sliding and mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates remain high. Comments

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The second-quarter Manhattan market reports, released by city
brokerages today, are a bizarre amalgam of unparalleled bad news — like
significant price declines and record decreases in sales volume — and
good news, such as more contracts and fewer price cuts. Experts say the seemingly contradictory data reflects the springtime
pickup in activity playing out against the backdrop of the continued
real estate slump. “Year-over-year, the numbers are very bad; I want to make that very
clear,” said Bill Staniford, the CEO of PropertyShark, which partnered
with the Corcoran Group to release a quarterly report. “But we are
starting to see some silver linings.” As expected, the impact of the fall’s Wall Street crisis and real
estate slump continued to drag down the Manhattan market, with sales
off a record 50 percent from the same quarter last year, quarterly
reports released by Corcoran, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Halstead
Property and Brown Harris Stevens found. [more]