Olshan’s tracker captures current market

A luxury residential report once made available only to an exclusive few New Yorkers is now available en masse, providing yet another insight into New York’s vast real estate market.

Olshan Realty, a Manhattan-based boutique brokerage, has been producing its weekly Luxury Tracker since 2006, sharing the details on the $4 million-and-up market with a small group. But the volatile luxury market seen during the downturn convinced company president Donna Olshan that others would benefit from reading it.

“In every downturn I have worked in, the high end held better than all others — except for the post-Lehman era,” said Olshan, a 30-year industry veteran.

She began giving users access to a “market scoreboard,” based on the report, over Facebook in August. By November she decided to expand the report again, writing longer summaries and posting the scoreboard and the tracker on her company’s website.

Olshan said that an increased interest in luxury data, along with her new approach to tracking, is driving subscribers.

“Many firms release market reports based on closed sales data — and they have real value — but in the end, they are retrospective,” Olshan said, noting that her report tracks “what is currently selling.”

About 400 subscribers have signed up through Olshan’s website to receive the tracker. The data comes from searches using Realplus.