Uber-wealthy drive top of market to new heights, but $5M to $20M segment lags

Kirk Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling
Kirk Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling

“$80 million is the new $20 million,” Kirk Henckels, Stribling & Associates’ director of private brokerage, told the Wall Street Journal. The upper-most echelon of New York City residential real estate is reaching heights never broached by the pre-recession market, the Journal said.

According to numbers from Stribling, the record sale price was about $6,000 a square foot in 2008, and has now reached more than $10,000 a square foot.

“The uber-rich have finally unleashed the liquidity that was well known to exist,” Henckels, told the Journal. “Clearly they are no longer embarrassed to show their wealth.”

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Meanwhile the middle of the market — the $5 million to $20 million range, in this case — has been left behind, Henckels said. There were 388 sales in the $5 million area this year through August, Stribling’s numbers show, down 7.4 percent year-over-year. [WSJ] — Guelda Voien