Good luck finding an under-$3M NYC apartment

New York City apartments priced under $3 million are seeing the worst effects of the market’s enduring inventory crunch, having plunged in availability to the lowest point in 12 years, Bloomberg Businessweek reported, citing data from appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

With the current developer focus on ultra-luxe, high-end condominiums with record price tags, listings on the nonluxury side of the fence have fallen by more than 36 percent year-over-year in each of the last three quarters.

“For the bulk of the market, the 90 percent, it’s probably the most challenging period for a buyer in the 25-plus years that I’ve been observing the market,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, told Bloomberg.

For-sale units priced at less than $3 million numbered 3,638 in the second quarter of 2013 — the smallest nonluxury inventory in nine years, according to Miller.

The median price for a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is $1.35 million, with a three-bedroom unit costing $2.63 million.

“Everything that’s built has to be considered luxury to succeed,” Rachel Gilbert Solomon, a principal at Atalanta Advisors, told Bloomberg. “Land is trading at a really high price so you have to make it very high-end.” [Bloomberg] — Julie Strickland