The news from across the East River ain’t good: Prices and sales volume are both down, and it’s taking a lot longer for apartments to sell; inventory is up 34 percent over last year. That’s the bottom line of the First Quarter Report from Douglas Elliman and Halstead released this morning. The number of co-op and condo closings fell 58 percent year-over-year and prices dropped 11 percent. (Co-op prices fared worse than condos, though that was likely skewed by fewer eight-figure co-op deals; in fact, the number of $10 million deals fell 87 percent.) Consumer confidence is the killer, said Dottie Herman, president of the Prudential Douglas Elliman brokerage firm. People are scared. They have never seen anything like this. Corcoran head Pam Liebman predicted that prices will fall further as sales volume picks up, which is good—it’s the only way for the market to find its bottom. How do you think the Brooklyn market is faring compared to this?
Apartments Sell for Less if They Are Sold at All [NY Times]
Crisis Hits Home: Manhattan Massacre [NY Post]
Photo by Rob Young