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Feb 20, 2008 8:01 pm US/Eastern
Manhattan Immune To Nationwide Housing Crisis
2007 A Record Year For Apartment Sales
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Manhattan apartment sales jumped 3.2 percent over 2006, selling on average, 18 days faster.
AP
The ongoing housing crisis is crippling markets nationwide, but the one place that doesn't seem to be affected by the downturn is in Manhattan. CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City's Don Dahler reports 2007 was a record year for apartment sales in the Big Apple, and 2008 may end up being every bit as good.
Sharon Baum, a Senior Vice President with The Corcoran Group, has a nice little 3000 square-foot condo overlooking Central Park -- on the market for $9.75 million -- that she'd like to sell you…if it wasn't already in a bidding war.
"There are more people, more demand, than there is supply," she says.
"You will have 10 to 15 buyers for a $25 million home in the first week."
For sellers, it's an embarrassment of riches, as in too many rich people looking for too few ritzy new homes. And that demand at the high end is pushing all Manhattan apartment prices to record highs -- an average of $1.4 million dollars in 2007.
In fact, Manhattan apartment sales jumped 3.2 percent over 2006, selling on average, 18 days faster. Condos saw a greater increase in values than co-ops, 17.8 percent to 9.1 percent.
And it does matter where the property is. Some city neighborhoods saw a drop in prices, including Inwood, Hudson Heights, Park Slope and Clinton Hill.
Yet Harlem was up. Way up.
And new projects that some might deem risky with today's market are doing well, too.
Much of the high-priced new construction like 15 Central Park West and the renovated Plaza, sold out immediately.
Baum's theory as to why the Big Apple is so far immune to the house sales woes?
"Because there's only one Manhattan, and everybody wants a piece of Manhattan," she says.
And with the inventory of available apartments down by 13 percent, finding that piece of the Apple has gotten a whole lot harder.
According to three different real estate firms, the number of apartments that sold for more than $10 million in the city last year tripled over those sold in 2006. Brokers say they haven't seen this kind of action since the dot-com boom of 2000.
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