Source: MarketWatch —
First, the good news.
The median sales price for residential properties sold in Manhattan rose to a record high in the second quarter, up 10.6% annually to $1.25 million, while the average sales price reached its third-highest on record, a report by property appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and real-estate brokerage Douglas Elliman said this week.
“The number of sales increased to the highest total for a second-quarter since 2007,” the report said. “Cash buyer market-share rose to the third-highest tracked, rebounding from the low recorded five quarters ago.”
Now for the bad news: While co-op and condo median sales rose to the highest on record in the second quarter, sale contracts for co-ops and condos fell nearly 30% on the year in June to 1,318. “This suggests that the current quarter represents a peak period of closed sales activity,” the report said. “The market share of bidding wars fell from the prior quarter’s four-year high of 9.3% to 8.5%, with the average amount of premium paid to fall to 4% from 5.3% over the same period.”
Frederick Warburg Peters, the president of Coldwell Banker Warburg, sounded a grimmer outlook for the Manhattan real-estate market in his own second-quarter market report, released this week. “Throughout the second quarter, that slowdown has accelerated: fewer signed contracts, fewer bidding wars, more price reductions, and a gradual increase in available inventory,” he wrote. “The gradually slowing sales market manifests in all boroughs and at all price points throughout the city.”