Luxury market had its best week in 9 months: Olshan

Manhattan’s luxury market had its most-active week in nine months, with 37 contracts signed at $4 million and above, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market report.

That was the highest total since the second week of May, which saw the same number of contracts signed.

Condominium units accounted for the bulk of the activity, particularly ones in new developments. Sponsor units accounted for 22 out of the 28 luxury condos that went into contract last week, according to Olshan.

The week’s No. 1 contract went to late philanthropist David Rockefeller’s Upper East Side townhouse, which had an asking price of $27 million. That’s a 17 percent reduction from the $32.5 million it had been asking when it hit the market in June.

The 40-foot-wide home at 146 East 65th Street spans nearly 10,000 square feet and has eight bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, a library and 8 fireplaces. It needs a gut renovation.

Glenwood Management’s 15-unit condo development at 60 East 86th Street took the No. 2 spot. The building’s triplex penthouse went into contract with an asking price of $22 million. The Thomas Juul-Hansen-designed unit has a 35-foot living room with a 20-foot-tall ceiling.

Glenwood is mostly known for doing rental developments, but Steven and Howard Swarzman, grandsons of late Glenwood founder Leonard Litwin, reportedly made the decision to do a condo building during their grandfather’s waning years.

The week’s asking price sales volume totaled $296.25 million, with a median asking price of $6.1 million. Luxury homes spent an average of 477 days on the market, and had an average discount of 8 percent from the original asking price to the final one. [Olshan] – Rich Bockmann