Luxury market is back on its feet: Olshan

Manhattan’s luxury market recorded 29 contracts at $4 million and above last week – the fourth week in a row contract activity topped 20 deals, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market report.

The No. 1 spot went to a 12-room co-op apartment across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 993 Fifth Avenue with an asking price of $17 million. That’s a nearly 32 percent reduction off the original ask of $24.9 million when the unit was first listed in May.

The full 7th floor home has six bedrooms, 5.5 baths and a master suite facing the museum. The Met, meanwhile, is considering selling its executive apartment on the building’s 2nd floor as it looks to shore up its unsteady finances.

Alchemy Properties and the Carlyle Group’s condominium development at 250 West 81st Street accounted for the week’s second-priciest contract: the triplex penthouse at the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building with an asking price of $16 million.

The building quietly started selling units in the fall, and the buyer of the 4,278-square-foot penthouse bought the unit off of floor plans.

The week’s asking-price volume totaled $204.79 million, with a median asking price of $5.25 million. Luxury homes spent an average of 377 days on the market, with an average discount of 10 percent from the original ask to the final one. [Olshan Realty] – Rich Bockmann