Steven Mnuchin’s Park Avenue pad tops Manhattan contracts last week

Luxury market sees 30-plus deals inked for 15th straight week

740 Park Avenue and 24 Leonard Street (Google Maps)
740 Park Avenue and 24 Leonard Street (Google Maps)

Former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin’s Park Avenue co-op led the list of luxury contracts inked last week.

Mnuchin’s heavily discounted pad was one of 37 Manhattan residences asking $4 million or more that went into contract, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report.

It’s the 15th consecutive week that more than 30 luxury contracts have been signed in the borough. In the same week a year ago, with the pandemic gripping the city, just two were signed — and a six-deal week was considered busy.

The median asking price of luxury Manhattan homes to find buyers last week was $6.85 million. The average home spent 448 days on market and had a 9 percent discount between the initial and final asking price.

Donna Olshan, the author of the report, said that despite the drop from the previous week’s 42 contracts, it was another “remarkable” week for the borough’s luxury market.

Read more

Some 731 luxury contracts have been signed this year, compared to 645 contracts in all of 2020. In a typical year, the average is just north of 1,100, according to Olshan.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

But she noted that the high volume of luxury contracts in 2021 may be attributable to buyers who delayed their plans last year because of the pandemic.

“I’m kind of convinced that what we’re really looking at is pent-up demand being released,” she said. “I think that what we’re really seeing is [that] 2021 is the catch-up year.”

To bring 2020 and 2021 up to the two-year average, 27 luxury contracts would have to be inked every week until the end of the year.

“One of the reasons that I think the market can deliver is [that] by the fall a lot of people will be back at work and I think the foreign market will come back,” Olshan explained.

Mnuchin’s duplex at 740 Park Avenue was asking $25.75 million, down from an initial $33 million, when it went into contract. The sale price will be revealed in public records when the deal closes.

The second priciest was a 4,929-square-foot apartment at 24 Leonard Street, a seven-unit condo project that has made this list before. The five-bedroom unit has landscaped terraces and was last asking $15.8 million. It was listed in August.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated 824 luxury contracts had been signed year-to-date, the correct figure is 731.