’Tis the season – for $4 million-plus homes.
The Manhattan luxury market is heading into the holiday season on the heels of a red hot November that was the best on record. Buyers signed a total of 124 contracts at or above the $4 million mark during the month, according to the latest Olshan report. That’s up 36 percent from November 2013.
“Anyone involved in the Manhattan luxury real estate market had a lot to be thankful for last week, and it wasn’t only because a tidy total of 17 contracts were signed at $4 million and above,” the report read. “The really big news was this: November 2014 turned out to be the biggest November in luxury sales since we started keeping track in 2006.”
The total volume of those contracts was $1.1 billion, up from $747 million the same time last year.
The top deal in November came the week of Nov. 10, when a full-floor penthouse at Chelsea’s Walker Tower asking $47.5 million went into contract. Penthouse 2 in JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group’s condo conversion, being marketed by Douglas Elliman’s Vickey Barron, spans 6,738 square feet with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms.
It was also a big month in the contemporary art market, which recorded two of the biggest weeks in auction history with more than $2 billion in sales in mid-November.
“Would you rather spend $81.9 million for Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis, which sold at auction last week at Christie’s, or $47.5 million for a fabulous New York apartment in the sky?” the Olshan report asked.
The luxury market is getting so hot that nearly half of the apartments that went into contract since September were bought sight-unseen, as The Real Deal reported last month.