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Home sellers in the outer boroughs last year saw a nice profit.
The same, however, can’t be said for Manhattan home sellers, as they were the only Big Apple borough that did not sell their homes for more money in 2025.
Across the city, homeowners recorded a median resale gain of $70,000 in 2025, according to a report from PropertyShark. The research firm analyzed almost 15,000 deals and subtracted original purchase prices from the 2025 sale prices. Property Shark also deducted closing sales costs and the buying costs that the original owner paid at acquisition. Taxes and common charges were not factored into the analysis.
Sellers had the strongest resale gains if they originally bought their properties between 2009 and 2012, shortly after the financial crisis; these sellers saw a median gain of $206,000 last year.
Overall, Staten Island resellers had the best performance last year. The median resale gain on the island was $164,000 in 2025. Brooklyn followed, with a median gain of $159,000.
“People are appreciating the fact that some of these areas in the outer boroughs offer more green space, more elbow room and more square footage for the same price and it’s only one to three stops to Manhattan,” said Kayla Lee, a broker with Serhant. “So they could still get the best of both worlds.”
The home type that led the way was two- and three-family homes, which saw a median gain of $324,000. Buyers and investors don’t just want duplexes and triplexes to live in while generating extra income; developers are eyeing these buildings as well for larger projects, upping the bidding process, Lee said.
The desire for more space emerged after the pandemic.
“Before it was location, location, location. They didn’t care that it was small, dark, and faced the brick wall as much. And post-pandemic, I think the number one thing I’ve heard the most of is, ‘it needs light because I need to work from home,’” Lee said. “‘I need to like my space.”
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Manhattan was the only borough that logged a negative median resale result, of -$24,000, because condos and co-ops underperformed last year, the report found. In Manhattan, co-ops had a median re-sale loss of $11,000, and condos, $58,000.
The pattern continues even when new development deals are removed from the analysis. New development re-sales throughout Manhattan saw a median loss of $53,000 last year.
The losses stemmed from greater investor and pied-a-terre demand, the report noted. Manhattan co-op owners have stricter purchasing requirements and board reviews that can make transactions more difficult.
Manhattan, however, also has a higher median price point than that of the outer boroughs, noted Peter Zaitzeff, also a Serhant broker who focuses on luxury new development sales. He added that over the past year, the $4 million-plus market has been consistently strong, with high demand for move-in ready properties. But there is a lack of inventory in Manhattan.
“There’s no inventory in New York,” he said. “There’s new development inventory in Brooklyn and Queens, Long Island City, because those are the only new places you can build.”
Meanwhile, in Manhattan townhouses and two- to -three-family properties performed the best, with the former posting a median resale gain of $739,000 and the latter, $356,000.