New York: Manhattan apartment sales doubled in the first quarter as bargain-hunting buyers scooped up co-ops and condos in a market where resale prices have fallen an average 29 per cent since their peak.
The number of sales soared to 2,384 from 1,195 a year earlier, New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said on Thursday. The median price for a co-op or condo slid 11 per cent to $868,000 (Dh3.18 million).
Values fell across apartments of all sizes as New York City recorded 10.2 per cent unemployment in February. Fallout from the recession and credit crisis that cost more than 184,000 finance jobs in the Americas is still hurting New York. The city lost 5.4 per cent of its finance industry jobs in the 12 months ending in February, the state Labor Department said on March 25.
"Buyers out there who are sophisticated are bypassing the product that is significantly overpriced," said Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based appraiser Miller Samuel. "The people who are priced correctly are seeing their properties sell."
Properties stayed on the market an average of 124 days, or 27 per cent less time than a year earlier. Listing discounts, which measure the amount of money sellers subtracted from their asking price to strike a deal, fell to 5.4 per cent from 12.4 per cent in the first three months of 2009.
Inventory growth
Both figures suggest that apartments priced to meet buyer expectations were the most likely to sell, Miller said. About two-thirds of units on the market are priced at least 10 per cent too high, he said.
Five reports issued on Thursday showed price declines in Manhattan. The Corcoran Group, which conducts its survey with research company PropertyShark.com, said the median price dropped 11 per cent from a year earlier. Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property put the decline at 10 per cent and StreetEasy.com said the fall was 8.1 per cent.
The median price rose 7.2 per cent from the previous quarter, according to the Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman report.
The number of apartments for sale surged 17 per cent from the previous three months to 8,027 properties, the biggest jump from the end of one year to the beginning of the next in at least a decade, Miller said. "I anticipate a lot more inventory growth this year than we normally see because people are testing the waters again," Miller said.
Jessica Brookbanks knew she'd face competition when she and her husband decided to put their two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op on the Upper West Side up for sale. Brookbanks, a broker at Stribling & Associates who just had a second child, is planning a move to Westport, Connecticut, and wanted to be there in time for next school year.
She priced her apartment at $850,000, about $50,000 less than comparable units in her neighbourhood, hoping to sell fast and short-circuit lengthy negotiations. The price was also slightly less than the couple paid in 2006.
They had a contract with a buyer within two weeks of listing the apartment.
"I felt I could have put it on for $875,000 and possibly negotiated with my buyer — but not much," Brookbanks, 33, said in a telephone interview. "I thought: I don't want the extra two weeks negotiating. In the end I got my price."
About 3,996 listings, or 28 per cent of properties on the market, carried price cuts in the first quarter, according to StreetEasy's report.
The biggest was at 30 E. 65th St, where a unit listed in January for $2.4 million was reduced 29 per cent to $1.7 million on February 10, according to StreetEasy. The 1,300-square-foot co-operative with a wrap-around terrace was under contract to a buyer a month later.
Zero tolerance
"There is still zero tolerance for overpricing," said Pamela Liebman, chief executive officer of New York-based broker the Corcoran Group. "If your property is overpriced, take it off the market because it's not going to sell."
Corcoran brokers counted 190 bidding wars among buyers vying for apartments, Liebman said. Unlike competitions during the boom, most ended without driving the price beyond what the seller initially asked, she said.
Studio apartment prices fell 14 per cent from a year earlier to a median of $375,000, Miller Samuel said. One-bedrooms slid 12 per cent to $627,500; two-bedrooms sank 25 per cent to $1.21 million and three-bedrooms plunged 36 per cent to $2.4 million.
Prices for four-bedroom apartments declined 28 per cent to a median of $5.65 million. Sales of luxury apartments, defined as the top 10 per cent by price, climbed 96 per cent to 235 transactions, Miller Samuel said. Their median price fell 31 per cent to $4.58 million.
"If this is a rebound, it's a rebound on shaky ground," said Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy. "We might not be out of the woods just yet."
