The number of price chops on apartment listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn has climbed steadily over the past year. In the former, 63 percent of neighborhood offerings underwent reductions, while 53 percent took a tumble in the latter.
Of all the neighborhoods in those boroughs, Roosevelt Island saw the biggest jump in price drops, as the median recorded sale price in July fell 65 percent to $840,000 from $1.48 million. Still, the price chops do not necessarily show that prices have decreased overall in the past year.
“Prices are still high,” Alan Lightfeldt of StreetEasy told DNAinfo. “But buyers are able to negotiate more of a discount and take back some of that bargaining power.”
A 2,520-square-foot loft condominium at 139 Spring Street hit the market in May for $7.3 million, then saw a price chop of $1 million, for example.
Real estate insiders told the listings site that they attribute the reductions to sellers and novice brokers being unrealistic about prices, and buyers staying out of the market. [DNAinfo] — Mark Maurer