New York City’s residential market kicked off 2017 on a high note, with $12.3 billion worth of sales, up 15 percent from the prior year, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York.
Despite the fears of a luxury slowdown contaminating the market, condominium prices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens hit new records in the first quarter of 2017, pushing the city’s overall average sales price up 12 percent to $1.02 million.
In Manhattan, the average condo sales price hit a record $3.03 million during the first quarter, representing a 27 percent increase, but Brooklyn’s average sales price posted the biggest gains, jumping 39 percent to $1.14 million. In Queens, the average sale price rose six percent to $602,000.
Meanwhile, deal volume citywide rose a modest two percent over the first quarter of 2016 to 12,112, according to the report. “People looking to make deals just went ahead,” said Michael Slattery, REBNY’s senior vice president of research.
According to Brian Klimas, REBNY’s chief research economist, the middle segment of the market, which “seemed to take a pause” in previous quarters amid concerns over the presidential election and rising interest rates, bounced back during the first quarter. “Once they saw things stabilize, it was all hands on deck again,” he said. To that end, the median sales price citywide rose seven percent to $600,000 during the first quarter.
But the luxury condo market was a particular bright spot, REBNY’s data show. Manhattan logged 36 sales above $10 million during the quarter, compared to 27 in 2016’s first quarter.
The disparity between condos and co-ops widened further during the first quarter, with the average condo sales price hitting $1.9 million, up 19 percent, compared to the average sales price for co-ops, which dropped two percent to $711,000.
The biggest gains were in neighborhoods with an abundance of new development, said Michael Slattery, REBNY’s senior vice president of research. However, he said, “Where there’s not been a lot of new development, there seems to be steady, modest and market-driven price appreciation.”
Here are a few other highlights from the report:
- The number of condo sales in Williamsburg skyrocketed 92 percent year-over-year to 169, and the neighborhood’s average sale price rose 30 percent to $1.2 million;
- In Midtown East, the average condo sales price increased 36 percent to $2.9 million and the number of sales jumped 20 percent to 118;
- Upper West Side co-op prices decreased 12 percent to $1.3 million, and the number of sales in that sector inched six percent higher to 326;
- The number of condo sales in Flushing doubled during the first quarter to 151 as the average sale price jumped 26 percent to $709,000;
- Finally, the number of homes that sold on Staten Island rose 26 percent to 1,290 and the average price jumped 10 percent to $517,000.
(To view TRData’s New Development database, click here)