Long downward slide for Manhattan?

From the NY Post:

N.Y. CRA$H PADS
By BRADEN KEIL

The top-heavy Manhattan residential real-estate market is teetering toward a long downward slide, new sales data show.

Third-quarter market reports released today by the city’s top four real-estate companies show that apartment prices have dropped, while two of the surveys say prices have sunk below last year’s third-quarter numbers.

Following a record run of year-over-year double-digit price increases, the second half of 2006 appears to be a turning point moving in sympathy with the negative national housing market.

“My phone has nearly stopped ringing,” said one high-end broker who requested anonymity. “It’s a scary time in this business.”

A chilling report by Brown Harris Stevens shows the average sale price for cooperative apartments slid by 4 percent in the past 12 months to $1,003,945, while condos fell 6 percent to $1,196,930, compared to the third quarter of 2005.

Halstead Property notes that the average apartment price is $1,087,982, which is 4 percent less than a year ago, and 10 percent lower than the second quarter 2006.

Weighing particularly hard on the market is the average sales price for a Manhattan co-op, which has dropped 16.1 percent in just the last quarter, from $1.296 million to $1.088 million, according to figures by Prudential Douglas Elliman.

“Buyers don’t feel the same urgency as in the past,” she said. “They feel more empowered to make low offers or just wait. We’re not going to sell as much as we did in the last few years because the market was previously reacting to a lack of inventory.”

“Higher-priced markets are seeing larger declines,” Lawrence Yun, an economist with the National Association of Realtors, told The Post. “People just cannot afford them because they’ve risen so much in places like New York.

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13 Responses to Long downward slide for Manhattan?

  1. James Bednar says:

    Hat tip to Ben at The Housing Bubble Blog for these links.

    Manhattan apartment prices slip in latest quarter

    The average sale price of a Manhattan apartment fell 7% from a record high, to $1.29 million – the latest indication that the city’s housing market is cooling.

    “The numbers show a soft landing,” said Jonathan Miller, the CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, who released third-quarter statistics yesterday.

    Indeed, though the price has dropped since the second quarter, it’s 12.1% higher than a year ago, said Miller, the author of the Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview.

    The statistics reflect the frustration of apartment sellers – who struggled to find the right strategies now that they no longer have the upper hand.

    Some had to cut their asking prices. Others decided they didn’t want to play the game at all.

  2. skep-tic says:

    24,000 new condos scheduled for completion next year. sellers need to feel the “urgency” a little more

  3. njresident286 says:

    i wonder what % 24,000 is of the total condo’s in NYC?

  4. skep-tic says:

    I read recently that in a typical year, about 16,000 condos sell

  5. James Bednar says:

    I believe Miller Samuel is going to release their Q3 report today, I’ll post a link as soon as it is available.

    jb

  6. SAS says:

    yes, alot of condos going up in nyc. Especially around the Morningside heights area. Columbia University has bought old building, remodeling them and trying to sell to employees & public. Columbia was offering no interest loans to their employees.

    Columbia owns alot of RE in west harlem.

    SAS

  7. patient homebuyer says:

    hey isn’t manhattan different from the rest of the country??

    i guess not

  8. Mr. Oliver says:

    Wait, this can’t be true, New York City is different!

    Don’t you all know that? :)

  9. UnRealtor says:

    What will Suzanne say about the decline in NY City RE values?

  10. James Bednar says:

    The Miller Samuel report will be out later in the week.

    jb

  11. Rich In NNJ says:

    Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel has links to news articles at his blog Matrix showing how differently each agency interprets and reports the data they released.
    It’s pretty interesting, the articles are all over the map.

  12. BC Bob says:

    Mr Oliver,

    You stole my thunder. This report must be wrong, prices can’t go down in NYC!!!!!!! Not with Wall Street and and all the “friends” inspired college graduates that are taking the city by storm, with their 150K starting salaries. I guess that means that Bergen County, with its proximity, may not be immune. HMMNNN!!!!!!!!!

  13. chaoticchild says:

    You gotta love the media.

    With the same reports, New York Times interprets them as prices have become steady and they are ready to take off again????????

    Here is the link to the article. Buying in Manhattan? Apartment Prices Steady

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