Apartment sales in Manhattan have dropped by nearly half compared to last year according to real estate data, reports CNBC.
Sales of residential units were down 46 percent in the third quarter of the year, a new record, leaving 10,000 apartments available on the most densely populated of New York’s five boroughs. CNBC quoted the real estate brokerage website Compass.
“There is no shortage of apartments for sale, but there is a shortage of buyers,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of real estate appraiser Miller Samuel.
CNBC listed several reasons for the decline, among them high unemployment, rising crime, and growing sanitation and public transit problems. Additionally, it said only 10% of office workers in Manhattan were returning to their buildings following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Moreover, it suggested the likelihood of rising taxes to offset New York’s multibillion-dollar budget deficits was also driving people out of Manhattan.
By contrast, signed contracts for homes in Palm Beach County have increased 62%, and 21% in Miami-Dade County in Florida.
Closer to New York, signed contracts for homes in the Hamptons on the south fork of Long Island, roughly 75 miles east of Manhattan, were up 76% in September compared with last year. Signed contracts in Westchester County in New York just north of Manhattan were up 56%, while Fairfield County in Connecticut saw a 36% jump.
Despite the trend, the average sale price in Manhattan rose 32% in the third quarter to $2.18 million, while the median sales price increased by 7% to $1.1 million.
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