Manhattan luxury market breaks single-week record for contract signings

67 deals were inked for homes asking a combined $614M, besting a previous high set in 2013

9 East 68th Street, 22 East 67th Street (elliman.com, streeteasy.com)
9 East 68th Street, 22 East 67th Street (elliman.com, streeteasy.com)

Manhattan’s luxury market may have just logged its most lucrative week ever.

Sixty-seven contracts were signed for luxury homes asking a combined $613.7 million in the third week of November, according to the Olshan report, which tracks contracts on Manhattan homes asking at least $4 million.

The report’s previous weekly record was set in December 2013, when 72 contracts were signed for homes asking a combined $576 million. The report debuted in 2006.

Eighteen of the deals were for homes asking more than $10 million, with a median ask of just over $9 million. Author Donna Olshan called it an extraordinary week.

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“The developers are doing really well,” she noted, pointing out that a majority of the 49 condos signed for last week are being sold by developers. The average discount from the original ask to the final one was 4 percent, down from 6 percent the week before, when 60 contracts were signed for homes asking a combined $553.8 million.

Co-ops also performed well, with 16 finding buyers last week, the same amount as the week before. Six contracts were signed for townhouses, including the two priciest listings.

The most expensive contract was for a townhouse at 9 East 68th Street that was split into 13 rental units. The property was last asking $29.5 million and spans 23,450 square feet over six stories. It’s unclear whether the buyer plans to renovate the multifamily property into a single-family mansion.

The second priciest was hedge funder Philip Falcone’s Upper East Side home at 22 East 67th Street, which was embroiled in a UCC foreclosure. The 13,300-square-foot home was renovated by Falcone and has seven bedrooms, 2,220 square feet of outdoor space and 10 fireplaces. It served as collateral along with Falcone’s Sagaponack home against mezzanine loans totalling more than $74 million. It was last asking $27.5 million, down from an initial ask of $39 million.