Home | Back | Manhattan Second-Quarter Apartment Sales Drop Most Since 1998
Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font

Manhattan Second-Quarter Apartment Sales Drop Most Since 1998


Manhattan apartment sales dropped the most for a second quarter since 1998 and unsold inventory approached an eight-year record, two signs prices may be poised to drop in the nation's most expensive urban housing market.


image

(Bloomberg) -- Sales fell 22 percent from a year earlier and inventory rose 31 percent to 6,869 units, New York-based real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report today. The median price of a co-operative or condominium apartment increased almost 15 percent to a record $1.03 million, lifted by new developments.

Transactions are declining as financial firms have announced plans to cut almost 90,000 jobs after taking more than $400 billion in mortgage-related losses and writedowns. Those companies may lose as many as 175,000 employees by next June, according to executive recruiters such as New York's Gerson Group, casting a pall on a property market driven by Wall Street compensation.

People are asking: "Am I going to have a job?" said Pamela Liebman, chief executive officer of the Corcoran Group, a Manhattan-based real estate brokerage that also issued a price report today. "There is a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty puts people on the sidelines."


Save/Share: Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Ma.gnolia Stumble Upon Facebook Twitter Google Yahoo! MyWeb Furl Technorati Mixx Windows Live

Comments (0 posted):

Leave a Comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: