Buyers in the Manhattan luxury apartment market opened their deep wallets during the first quarter, with sales surging 29% to 2,560 closed transactions, up from 1,988 one year earlier.
CNBC, citing multiple data sources, reports the total value of Manhattan’s luxury apartment sales totaled $5.7 billion in the first quarter, up 56% year-over-year, while sales of apartments priced at over $5 million skyrocketed by 49% from one year earlier. As for the super-luxury properties priced at $20 million or more, that sector recorded its best first quarter since 2019.
“Largely insulated by mortgage-rate fluctuations and driven by portfolio diversification strategies, this highlights renewed confidence among luxury buyers and underscores the broader generational wealth underway,” said the brokerage Compass in a data report.
As for financing these pricey apartments, 58% of the sales in the quarter were all-cash deals, with 90% of the apartments priced over $3 million being picked up by all-cash buyers.
If there was a weak spot in this sector, it involved the “mid-market” of properties priced between $1 million and $3 million – closed sales for those locations were down 10% from one year earlier.
However, Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, observed that year-over-year increases occurred largely because the first quarter of 2024 was unusually slow – the sales total for this year’s first quarter was only 1.1% above the historical average for the past decade.
