The 2013 Manhattan housing market is best characterized as having record low inventory, heavy sales volume, but only modest price growth. The New York City economy continued to improve and the influx of international buyers and falling mortgage rates kept the housing market moving quickly. The somewhat unexpected and near record sales volume combined with record low inventory created the fastest moving market in 14 years. The monthly absorption rate, the number of months to sell all inventory at the current rate of sales, fell to 3.9 months, the fastest recorded metric in this research. Despite heavy sales volume, all housing price indicators saw modest gains from prior year levels…