From the March issue: Recession notwithstanding, the median sales price of a Manhattan townhouse jumped 13.2 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. One reason for the jump is that, unlike condos, very few newly built townhouses have been added to the housing stock, according to Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of Miller Samuel. That begs the question of why so many New Yorkers spend millions to painstakingly renovate historic brownstones, rather than just building new houses. After all, many Manhattanites love newly built condos, and modern McMansions have spread like wildfire across the country in recent years. [more]

Both the single-family and multi-family Manhattan townhouse markets showed signs of improvement last year, according to the Corcoran Group, which released its first annual Townhouse Report today. In the single-family market, the number of sales climbed 68 percent year-over-year to 96, while the median sales price inched up 6 percent during the same time period, reaching $5.83 million. Multi-family townhouses, which Corcoran defines as housing two to four families, saw a more tepid level of activity. TRD [more]