By the numbers: High living brought low(er)

From the February issue: For more than a year now, weakness in Manhattan’s ultra-luxury condo market has been making headlines. But just how real (and deep) is the softness? “The market fell short of its golden years of 2013, 2014 and 2015,” said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty and publisher of an eponymous weekly report on Manhattan’s $4 million-plus residential sales. In the back half of last year, 511 Manhattan luxury homes went into contract. That’s a drop of 14 percent from the second half of 2015. And, as many observers began noting early last year, discounting has become de rigueur. “The average negotiability is about 6 percent,” said Olshan, using the polite term for price cuts. That’s two times the rate in 2013.[more]