Manhattan homes cost 5 times more than average

Manhattan home prices By Les Christie, staff writer


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Isn't it fun to be a New Yorker? There's the rotten weather much of the year, dirty subway stations, packed restaurants and grid-locked streets. And really high home prices.

According to four residential real estate market reports released Friday, this year the typical Manhattan home buyer shelled out about five times as much as the average American paid for a place to live.

"The New York market is strong compared with the rest of the country, but that's not saying much," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, the premiere local appraisal firm.

The Manhattan housing market is considerably off its peak. Back in late 2008, buyers paid an average of about $1,400 a square foot for a condo or co-op. The average price this year was a little over $1,000.

That may be a cool million dollars for a 1,000-square-foot apartment, but it still means home prices have fallen nearly 30%.

The median price for homes sold during the first three months of 2011 fell 2% to $800,000 year-over-year, according to the Corcoran Group. Brokers Halstead and Brown, Harris, Stevens both say the situation was worse, citing prices falling 4% to $787,500.

Miller, who produces the report for Prudential Douglas Elliman, said the median price fell 10% to $782,071. That drop was a bit deceiving, though. He said the mix of apartments sold changed significantly this quarter compared to the first quarter of 2010.

In those months, about half of all homes sold were cooperative apartments and half were condominiums. This time, though, the mix was 60-40 in favor of co-ops.

Condos, however, sell at a big premium to co-ops -- a median of $1.15 million compared to $642,000 -- and Miller thinks the increase in co-op sales accounts for most or all of the price difference he recorded.

The real estate market has followed, more or less, the trajectory of the local economy. Hiring, for example, has been less than robust in town and the unemployment rate has hovered in the region just below 9% for a number of months. It was 8.9% in February.

"Wall Street is progressing nicely," said Greg Heym, an economist who puts together the housing reports for both Halstead and Brown Harris Stevens. "That bodes well for the future of housing here."

Miller does not expect much market volatility for the rest of the year.

"We're not seeing prices rise very much and we're not seeing them fall very much," he said. "It's a post-stimulus housing market and it will be on the weak side: 2011 will be rather boring." To top of page


Just the hot list include
Frontline troops push for solar energy
The U.S. Marines are testing renewable energy technologies like solar to reduce costs and casualties associated with fossil fuels. Play
25 Best Places to find rich singles
Looking for Mr. or Ms. Moneybags? Hunt down the perfect mate in these wealthy cities, which are brimming with unattached professionals. More
Fun festivals: Twins to mustard to pirates!
You'll see double in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Ketchup lovers should beware in Middleton, WI. Here's some of the best and strangest town festivals. Play
Overnight Avg Rate Latest Change Last Week
30 yr fixed3.80%3.88%
15 yr fixed3.20%3.23%
5/1 ARM3.84%3.88%
30 yr refi3.82%3.93%
15 yr refi3.20%3.23%
Rate data provided
by Bankrate.com
View rates in your area
 
Find personalized rates:
  • Find Homes for sale
    Real estate and homes for sale on Trulia

  • Property Type
  • Find a home in: New York | Atlanta | Chicago | Los Angeles
  • Washington D.C | Houston | Philadelphia | More options
Index Last Change % Change
Dow 32,627.97 -234.33 -0.71%
Nasdaq 13,215.24 99.07 0.76%
S&P 500 3,913.10 -2.36 -0.06%
Treasuries 1.73 0.00 0.12%
Data as of 6:29am ET
Company Price Change % Change
Ford Motor Co 8.29 0.05 0.61%
Advanced Micro Devic... 54.59 0.70 1.30%
Cisco Systems Inc 47.49 -2.44 -4.89%
General Electric Co 13.00 -0.16 -1.22%
Kraft Heinz Co 27.84 -2.20 -7.32%
Data as of 2:44pm ET

Sections

Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands. More

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford charts her career path, from her first job to becoming the first openly gay CEO at a Fortune 500 company in an interview with CNN's Boss Files. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.