Manhattan Condos Are Much Better Off Than 2015, But The Market May Be Slowing Down

Last week, we saw how the city’s office market fared in Q3 2016, but now—with the help of TOWN Residential and CityRealty.com—we’re taking a look at the condo market. 

In Q3, Manhattan continued to show its strength as a surge of new luxury development closings pushed the average sales price and median sales price up from 2015. But this success may be tapering off, as these stats were slight decreases from the previous quarter. 

Average sale price for luxury condos, for example, increased 14% year-over-year to $2M, while median sales price jumped 6% to $1.1M. But those are 2% and 3.7% quarter-to-quarter decreases, respectively. Price per SF followed a similar pattern, increasing 3% year-over-year, but decreasing 2.5% from last quarter. 

Manhattan condos had the strongest year-over-year increase, with average price increasing 25.4% to $3M and median price increasing 9% to $1.7M. But, again, these were slight quarter-to-quarter decreases. 

Downtown had the highest median prices for three-plus, two- and one-bedroom condos. It was also the highest-grossing neighborhood, with $595M in condo sales in September, and had the highest price per SF ($1,961/SF). Midtown was a distant second.

New condos dominated, averaging $2,562/SF and $5.9M per condo—a 27% year-over-year increase and 3% month-over-month increase. Last month alone, new condos had total sales of $551M.

What’s definitely better than last year, however, is Manhattan’s demand, as the amount of time it took to sell an apartment shrank to only 48 days, a 14% decrease from last quarter. But, TOWN Residential founder/CEO Andrew Heiberger believes the pipeline has begun to taper, and Manhattan’s true strength will be tested in the upcoming months.