The strength of the luxury home segment propelled Manhattan’s residential market skyward in 2014.
The average sales price hit a new record of $1.74 million last year, up from 2013’s high of $1.5 million. Luxury housing performed the strongest as its average sales price jumped 19.3 percent to a whopping $7.4 million.
Median home prices, which are somewhat buffered from the impact of high-end transactions, also shot up to $940,000 last year, just short of the record of $955,000 reached in 2008, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
The market got a boost from a combination of strong employment, low interest rates and an influx of international homebuyers, said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel. While listing inventory increased 20 percent to 4,995 by the end of last year, it remained about 30 percent below the 10-year average, according to Miller Samuel. This suggests that supply will continue to favor stronger home prices.
Luxury homes, especially on the ultra-high end, grabbed most of the headlines as deals continued to set new records. In the final quarter of 2014, Manhattan saw 39 homes worth $10 million or above change hands, a 144 percent jump from a year earlier. The priciest sale of the year was a duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue, which billionaire Leonard Blavatnik bought from New York Jets owner Woody Johnson for $80 million, which set an all-time price record for a co-op. And right at the start of 2015, a $100 million sale of a penthouse condo at One57 set a new record for Manhattan’s priciest sale ever.
The outer boroughs are showing a more modest picture. Median home prices grew 4 percent and 6.2 percent respectively in Brooklyn and Queens in the third quarter of 2014 from a year before, according to Miller Samuel.
Rents in Manhattan are showing moderate signs of strength. Landlords charged an average of $3,836 per month at the end of the year, up 2.1 percent from a year before, according to MNS. Brooklyn also reported an increase in rents while Queens saw a decline.
New York’s most expensive rental unit ever, a $500,000-per-month full-floor pad on the 39th floor of the Pierre Hotel, found a tenant less than two months after Town Residential listed the property in October 2014.