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…