…According to the Elliman report, the concern over inventory shrinking to a near record low of 4,795 was allayed by a robust number of transactions. The sale of 3,144 apartments during the spring quarter represented an 18.8 percent improvement over 2012, said Jonathan J. Miller, the author of Elliman’s report and the president of Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm.
“In the city as well as nationally, we didn’t see the usual spring uptick in inventory kick in as expected,” Mr. Miller said. “If anything, inventory is moving sideways. But at the same time, we had this jump in sales activity, our most active spring since 2007. It’s been an inconsistent market with a lot of extremes, but the take-away is that even with low inventory, we’re not seeing runaway price growth.”
The average sale price of a Manhattan residence for the past quarter, which ended on Sunday, was $1.45 million, according to Mr. Miller, an increase of 1 percent over a year ago….
