Manhattan and Brooklyn sales listings trend in opposite directions
- Manhattan properties priced below $1 million increased 9 percent as luxury inventory shrank
- Brooklyn listings asking $4 million-plus more than doubled as per a new report from UrbanDigs
Buyers and sellers are reacting differently across price tiers rather than one side pushing the market in a single direction, said John Walkup of UrbanDigs.
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A new report compares Manhattan and Brooklyn sales listings in different pricing tiers and finds inventory moving in opposite directions.
Apartment listings priced under $1 million have grown in Manhattan while luxury supply has shrunk. In Brooklyn, high-end listings have more than doubled and its starter apartment supply has fallen, according to the report by John Walkup, co-founder of UrbanDigs, a New York City real estate analytics firm.
The report contrasted snapshots of Manhattan and Brooklyn sales inventory in June 2023 to June 2026 in four price ranges: under $1 million, $1-$2 million, $2-$4 million, and $4 million-plus.
“Over the past three years, Manhattan’s under-$1 million is the only price band bringing more new listings to market than it did in June 2023, up 8.9 percent, while $2-4 million new listings have shrunk 18.3 percent, the steepest drop of any tier.” Sellers in that $2-4 million band “appear to be sitting out,” he said.
Brooklyn showed a mirror image, Walkup said. Its $4 million-plus tier has more than doubled its new-listing volume, up 111.5 percent, and $2-4 million is up 31.1 percent, while under-$1 million is the only tier bringing less supply to market than three years ago, down 5.2 percent, he wrote.
Why are the markets reversed?
Walkup said the growth in listings “appears concentrated where sellers are more confident they can get their price.”
Brooklyn’s under-$1 million sector is the exception to this rule. Supply there “is slipping, and that is where the two boroughs diverge most sharply,” he wrote.
A mortgage lock-in effect may also be playing a role in Brooklyn: Sellers with low mortgage rates are reluctant to list properties if it means they must borrow at a higher rate to buy somewhere else, “particularly if prices have not fallen enough to justify a move,” Walkup wrote.
This does not mean the Brooklyn market is unhealthy, he wrote. Buyers and sellers are reacting differently across price tiers rather than one side pushing the market in a single direction, he wrote.
Manhattan properties under $1 million showed “stability,” Walkup told Brick. “It was the only Manhattan price tier to show a positive change, while the higher tiers were generally slipping.”
Most of the supply at this price level comes from resales of small co-ops and condos, namely studios and one bedrooms. The amount of new development listings under $1 million is a tiny fraction.
If there was any lock-in effect in this price range, it was likely “unlocked by life,” Walkup said. Sellers had to make a move for reasons that outweighed any other consideration.
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