In the fourth quarter of 2009, there were fewer price cuts, more price increases than before, a decrease in inventory and a jump in contracts from a year earlier, according to a fourth-quarter market report released today by Streeteasy.com. Though Manhattan hasn’t quite recovered from the Lehman Brothers collapse, “there’s a growing sense of buyer confidence and seller optimism,” said Sofia Song (formerly Sofia Kim), vice president of research at Streeteasy and the author of the report. In the fourth quarter, 3,810, or 27.4 percent, of Manhattan listings on Streeteasy.com saw their prices drop at least once, according to the Web site, which specializes in real estate data. That’s 29 percent fewer price cuts than in the third quarter, and 14.4 percent fewer than in the fourth quarter of 2008. “We saw fewer price cuts, and those price cuts were not as deep,” Song said. Condos saw an average price cut of 7.8 percent, down from 8.4 percent in the third quarter, the report says, while the average price cut for co-ops was 7.7 percent, compared to 8.1 percent in the previous quarter. Moreover, there were actually some price increases in the fourth quarter, though they were still rare, Song said. [more]

Click map for larger version (Source: PropertyShark)

An uptick in sales activity has slowed the once-rapid decline in the Manhattan real estate market, according to fourth-quarter 2009 market reports released by the city’s major brokerages today (see reports after the jump), though experts still fear a double-dip in prices. Sales activity jumped and inventory shrank in the fourth quarter, the reports show, though prices were still far below 2008 levels. Experts attributed the positive signs to low interest rates, pent-up demand from a slow winter, and falling prices. “This surge in activity and sharp drop in inventory has stopped prices from essentially hemorrhaging,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel and the preparer of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s fourth-quarter report. “We’re looking at a much more modest decline.”  More

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From the October issue: Brooklyn’s official motto may be “Fuggedaboutit,” but the borough’s
real estate industry is not having an easy time shaking thoughts of
double-digit price drops and troubled residential projects. Overall,
the median closed sales price in Brooklyn has already fallen back to
2005 levels, dropping 19 percent over the past two years, according to
StreetEasy. Rental listing prices dropped 12 percent over the past
year, not including all of the concessions landlords are throwing in
these days. Meanwhile, a city tally early last month found that
Brooklyn had more stalled construction sites than any other borough
with 214 — a stunning 47 percent of all 448 projects citywide. What’s worse, most experts agree that the market has yet to reach bottom.

From left: Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel and Sofia Kim of Streeteasy

New residential developments in Manhattan struggled to maintain their market share in the third quarter of 2009 from last year, according to market reports released today by several real estate firms. Streeteasy.com reported that of 631 unit closings, new developments accounted for only 19 percent, a 66 percent decline from third-quarter 2008, when there were 1,860 closings. The sizable decrease in the presence of new developments in the
closings is a sign that buyer confidence has been severely hurt, said
Sofia Kim, vice president of research at Streeteasy and the author of
the company’s report. In the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse last
year, she explained, buyers have become unwilling to wait until
construction on a project is finished before closing. “They aren’t sure
if prices are going to drop even more,” she said. Moreover, for
the few recession-era buyers who are able to get mortgages, priorities
have changed. “People are in the market for deals,” Kim said. “They are
not in the market for starchitect-designed buildings or fancy amenities
that aren’t necessary.” [more]

Last month saw a landslide of home contract signings, burgeoning hope that a housing market recovery may be underway. August saw a 47 percent increase in the number of residential contract signings penned for homes under $500,000, compared to the dismal figures from the same time period a year ago, according to data from Streeteasy.com. While this is a significant increase, Sofia Kim, Streeteasy’s vice president of research, cautioned against irrational optimism. “This season has seen a dramatic increase in contract activity since a year ago,” Kim said. “While this seems like very good news for the industry, one has to keep in mind that average prices of these contracts are down 20 percent from a year ago.”

 Left to right: Jonathan Miller, Sofia Kim, Diane Ramirez

Hard data now confirms months of whispering about drastic declines in the post-Lehman Manhattan residential real estate market. Walloped by the credit crunch, housing downturn and recession trifecta,
the total number of Manhattan real estate sales plummeted by half in
the first quarter of this year from the same period last year,
according to quarterly Manhattan market reports released by the city’s
major brokerages and real estate data firms today. The number of closed sales in new developments fared even worse,
dropping 67 percent from the prior-year quarter, according to the
report released by the Corcoran Group and prepared by
Propertyshark.com. Contract signings, which provide a more accurate
picture of current market conditions, in the first quarter plunged 40
percent to 1,324, from 2,225 in the prior-year quarter, according
to a first-quarter report released by real estate listings Web site
Streeteasy.com. [more]