Another slow week in the luxury residential market left January with the lowest number of contracts in six years, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market report.
There were 15 contracts signed at $4 million and above last week, ending the month’s total at 68. That represents a 29 percent decline from a year ago, and the lowest total since January 2012, a month that saw just 40 luxury deals inked.
Cold winter weather during what is already traditionally a slow month for sales, coupled with uncertainty over the new tax-reform law signed in late December contributed to the paltry figures, according to Olshan.
Actor Bruce Willis’ home topped the list with the No. 1 contract for his duplex apartment at 271 Central Park West, which had an asking price of $17.75 million. That’s less than $1 million than what he and his wife, Emma, paid for it back in 2015.
The No. 2 contract went to a West Village home where famed photographer Diane Arbus lived in the 1960s. The 25-foot-wide townhouse at 131 Charles Street and the two-story carriage house behind it – which Arbus called home – had an asking price of $10.8 million. That’s a 20 percent chop from the $13.5 million it had been asking when it originally hit the market in April 2015.
The total asking price volume for luxury sales during the week was $110.26 million, with a median asking price of $5.99 million.
There was an average discount of 16 percent from the original ask to the final one, and luxury homes spent an average of 566 days on the market. [Olshan Realty] – Rich Bockmann