With so much discussion about the upper end of the market, I decided to look at the top 1 percent of Manhattan co-op, condo and townhouse closings as a scattergraph since the dawn of time (i.e. 2003, when the boom started to gather steam, nearly a decade ago). Each dot represents a closed sale at or above $10M. Here are a few observations:
– About 970 sales since 2003 averaging 108 sales per year.
– The over-reported $88M 15 CPW sale sticks out like a sore thumb (sold in 2011, closed in 2012) so I also prepared a chart that excludes it to provide better scale for analysis.
– From 2003 sales increased at higher prices through 2007.
– In the first half of 2008, arguably the peak of the Manhattan housing boom, the market experienced the highest density of sales, largely crammed into the first half of the year.
– In the dark days of 2009 post-Lehman, there were a surprising number of sales, almost comparable to 2004-2005.
– 20010-2011 saw a noticeable uptick in activity, comparable to the period 2006-2007.
Hard to tell yet what 2012 has in store in this market segment with Wall Street comp down and the potential for the US Dollar to strengthen against the euro.
· Matrix [matrix.millersamuelv2.wpenginepowered.com]
· Three Cents Worth archive [Curbed]
