The Landhauser Group Blog

The news form the first quarter 2011 Manhattan Market Report from Prudential Douglas Elliman can best be described as the market is improving. Overall, there were more sales than any first quarter in the past three years. Sales were up slightly compared with the first quarter of last year at 0.4%. However, sales were up a respectable 4.3% from first quarter 2009.

The median home sales price dropped to $782,071, down 9.9 percent compared to last year and 7.4 percent from fourth-quarter 2010. That decline was led primarily by re-sale units, which saw their median price drop to $725,000, down 12.7 percent year-over-year and 9.4 percent from fourth-quarter 2010. This drop analysts say was skewed a bit by the fact that there were more coop sales than condos (which are priced higher).

Quoted in the Real Deal, Milller explained ‘A lot more co-ops [sold] than condos and condos are more expensive. [It's] a stable but weak market that has rebounded significantly from the low period two years ago but still isn’t out of the woods.’

Recently, we’ve noticed much more activity at open houses and quite a bit more interest in listings than we’ve seen in a long time. While there are challenges such as continued tight credit and some economic strains, we think that 2011 should see much improvement.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need more analysis of the information provided. You can reach me at wlandhauser@elliman.com or 212-350-2807.

Filed under: Market Reports by William Landhauser