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发帖数: 7881 | 1 By MICHELLE HIGGINSAPRIL 1, 2014
The Manhattan real estate market got off to a robust start in the first
three months of the year, as signed contracts for ultraluxury apartments in
new developments began to close, many with multimillion-dollar price tags,
according to reports to be released by major brokerages on Tuesday.
The flurry of activity at the top pushed the number of sales to a seven-year
high for the quarter and sent the average price per square foot soaring to
a record $1,363, according to a report by the Douglas Elliman brokerage firm
. Low inventory, high demand and a shift toward larger units in new luxury
developments contributed to higher prices. The median price of a condominium
jumped 13.4 percent during the first quarter from the same period last year
, setting a record at $1,355,000, according to the Elliman report.
“This is the first time that we’ve seen this spike in price,” said Diane
M. Ramirez, the chief executive of Halstead Property, which reported that
the average price for an apartment in Manhattan set a record at $1,715,741
during the first quarter, up 30 percent compared with a year ago.
Over the past year, she said, “prices have been going up at a relatively
moderate pace,” but the lack of inventory and high demand meant a
significant uptick was imminent. “You knew it was coming,” she said.
Such robust price gains are “slightly exaggerated” when compared with the
relatively weak first quarter of 2013, which saw a lull after a rush of high
-end closings at the end of 2012 by buyers seeking to avoid impending tax
changes, said Jonathan J. Miller, the author of Elliman’s report and the
president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
Even so, “the chronic lack of inventory of the last several years is
finally beginning to impact pricing,” Mr. Miller said.
Over all, the median sales price rose 18.5 percent to $972,428 in the first
quarter compared with the same time last year, which is about 5 percent
below the 2008 peak.
Brokers expect those numbers to continue to climb. “You won’t have 18
percent price jumps every month — that’s not sustainable,” said Dottie
Herman, the chief executive of Douglas Elliman. But the median price will
rise, she projected. “I expect it to be caught up 100 percent by midyear,”
and then slightly surpass the height of the market in 2008, she said.
While new developments represented less than 20 percent of market-wide
closings, they drove some of the biggest price increases. The average price
of a condo jumped 35 percent in the first quarter compared with the same
period last year to set a record of $2,368,077, skewed largely by the sale
of two penthouses, according to reports by Halstead and Brown Harris Stevens
. In January, a $50.912 million penthouse closed at Walker Tower in Chelsea.
And last month the media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchased a $43.01 million
triplex penthouse atop One Madison on the southeast side of Madison Square
Park. The mega-sales are expected to continue as contracts for apartments
exceeding $90 million apiece at premium developments like 432 Park Avenue
and One57 turn into done deals.
Such headline-grabbing sales tend to have a covetous effect on sellers at
all levels, brokers say. “They see this and say my apartment is worth more,
” said Hall F. Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens. But while a $90
million condo sale may help boost overall confidence in the market, he said,
it “does not have a direct impact on a two-bedroom Park Avenue apartment
or something on East 85th Street.”
Inventory was still a challenge, with the number of available apartments
either flat or down by as much as 17 percent in the first quarter compared
with the same period last year, depending on the report.
It was the first quarter to show a decline in contracts signed after seven
consecutive quarters of double-digit year-over-year gains, according to a
report by the Corcoran Group. Despite the large increase in closings, signed
contracts were down 24 percent to 2,654 for the first quarter compared with
the same period last year, according to the report, which attributed the
drop largely to low inventory with too few apartments to satisfy hungry
buyers, particularly at affordable prices.
A lack of large new development buildings and the harsh winter weather were
also a factor. “That combo of bad weather and low inventory had a pretty
significant effect on signed contracts this quarter,” said Pamela Liebman,
chief executive of the Corcoran Group, who said that some sellers opted to
postpone open houses until spring to avoid people traipsing through their
apartments with snow-covered boots. That did not help ease the tight supply.
“There are a lot of unsatisfied buyers out there hoping this spring will
finally be the time they can find their home,” she said. |
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