Apartment sales in Manhattan dipped 10.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, yet another sign that the residential market is still in the midst of a correction.
Between 2011 and 2017, the median price for Manhattan apartments increased 40 percent. In the second quarter of 2018, the median price decreased 9.2 percent year-over-year to $1.085 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is the lowest price seen since the fourth quarter of 2016.
“We are at the tail end of the great correction that began 18 to 24 months ago,” Leonard Steinberg, president of Compass, told the Journal.
Fewer buyers are attending open houses, inventory is on the rise and it’s taking longer for homes to sell. A separate report by Brown Harris Stevens shows that absorption rate rose to 8.2 months in Manhattan in May, a 30 percent increase from the same time last year. The number of unsold listings hit 7,487 at the end of May, a 31.8 percent year-over-year increase, according UrbanDigs.com.
Some brokers say the federal tax law is contributing to the slump. The law limits deductions to $10,000 for state and local taxes, including property taxes. [WSJ] — Kathryn Brenzel