UES penthouse asking $35M leads Manhattan luxury contracts

In yet another week, buyers inked 30-plus deals for homes asking $4M or more

109 East 79th Street and 551 West 21st Street (CityRealty, StreetEasy)
109 East 79th Street and 551 West 21st Street (CityRealty, StreetEasy)

The Manhattan luxury market’s strong run continued last week.

Buyers signed 33 contracts for homes asking $4 million or more in the borough last week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly contract report. It was the 37th week this year in which 30 or more purchase agreements were signed for luxury Manhattan homes.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Donna Olshan, the author of the report. “We’ve blown all the other years away in every respect.”

The top asking price in the group was $35 million for a 5,721-square-foot penthouse at The Legion condominium at 109 East 79th Street on the Upper East Side. The four-bedroom residence also has 3,666 square feet of outdoor space, which includes an outdoor kitchen, fireplace and roof garden.

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The second priciest was a Chelsea condo at 551 West 21st Street. The 4,271-square-foot, four-bedroom unit was last asking $15.87 million. The seller had bought the condo for just over $15 million in October 2016.

The median asking price for the 33 homes was $5.7 million and they spent an average of 387 days on the market. The average discount from the original asking price to the last one was 5 percent.

Olshan said that the spread of the Omicron variant has blunted the return of foreign buyers, but she said domestic demand remains strong. She expects that to continue through the first quarter of 2022.

“We definitely have more gas in the tank,” she said. “Especially if Wall Street keeps rolling and interest rates stay low.”