Manhattan homes for sale nearly doubled last week

New listings poured onto the Manhattan market last week as New York City’s brokerage community got back to work.

Phase two of reopening the city began last Monday, allowing brokers to restart in-person showings after a three-month halt. Agents and homeowners celebrated by bringing nearly 550 properties to market last week, according to data firm UrbanDigs’ weekly report on Manhattan’s sales market.

Last week’s new listing volume marked a 97 percent increase year-over-year compared to the same week in 2019, when 279 listings went live.

Contract activity is still far behind, however. Only 69 properties went into contract last week, a 68 percent drop from the 213 homes that inked deals in the final week of June 2019.

A week prior, UrbanDigs reported 72 signed contracts in the borough, a breakout increase after 10 weeks of minimal activity.

Reports tracking signed high-end contracts in Manhattan and Brooklyn both saw drops in contract activity last week. Many brokerage leaders said they anticipated a surge in activity as phase two began, while some brokers harbored lower expectations given summer holidays and pricing uncertainty.

John Walkup, UrbanDigs’ co-founder and COO, is holding out hope that contract activity will catch up to supply.

“In the coming weeks, we should start seeing a recovery in deal volume as the lagging contacts-signed number begins catching up,” he said in a statement.

Fewer listings were removed last week compared to a year prior. There were 149 properties taken offline last week compared to 258 in 2019.

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com

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