Sell

Report: Over three-quarters of Manhattan apartments sold for less than asking

By Nikki M. Mascali  | March 15, 2019 - 3:00PM
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In Midtown Manhattan, 92 percent of luxury apartments listed last spring sold below their asking price.

Billie Grace Ward/Flickr

If you’re planning on selling your luxury apartment in Manhattan anytime soon, brace yourself. There’s a pretty good chance you’re going to get less than you want. A new report from StreetEasy shows that 77 percent of apartments listed between March and May of last year eventually closed for below their asking price. 

Midtown luxury condos took the biggest hit, with 92 percent listed last spring closing below ask, and Downtown neighborhoods didn’t fare much better. In Tribeca and Soho, 90 percent and 89 percent of listings also closed below asking, respectively. 

Even though Battery Park City had a median asking price that's nearly $1 million less than those Downtown neighborhoods, 94 percent of all sales closed below asking. The neighborhood’s number of land-lease buildings and older condo stock likely played a role, the report says. In neighboring Fidi, where there are more than a dozen newer condo buildings—and a median asking price of $1.4 million—86 percent of listings closed below ask last year. 

Resales are a new pain point for Manhattan sellers. One in five apartments in the $1 to $4 million-price range sold at a loss over the past five years, according to StreetEasy data prepared for Brick Underground in December.

Brownstone Brooklyn & Prospect Park sellers are better off

Brooklyn sellers fared slightly better, but not by much, with 61 percent of sales closing below the asking price last year, the StreetEasy data shows. 

However, "Brownstone Brooklyn" neighborhoods were an exception. Almost half of the sales in Fort Greene closed above asking, with Carroll Gardens and Park Slope not that far behind. 

Sellers in five of the six neighborhoods adjacent to Prospect Park also saw 38 percent or more of sales closing above the asking price last year, with Windsor Terrace taking the lead with 42 percent.

5 NYC neighborhoods where the most apartments sold above asking

1. Elmhurst: 54.5 percent
2: Fort Greene: 47.6 percent
3: Carroll Gardens: 46 percent
4: Windsor Terrace: 41.9 percent
5: Park Slope: 40.5 percent

5 NYC neighborhoods where the most apartments sold below asking

1. Brownsville & Manhattan Beach: 100 percent
2. Battery Park City: 94.9 percent
3. Midtown: 92.9 percent
4. Long Island City: 91.2 percent
5. Bath Beach & Dyker Heights: 90.9 percent

 

The interactive map above represents the share of homes listed March-May of 2018 for neighborhoods in which there were at least 25 homes listed, with sales through Feb. 1, 2019, included.

 

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