Manhattan Housing Prices Take a Dive
Tough times across the river. The grim first quarter stats—volume down 60 percent, average co-op prices down 24 percent—may only be the tip of the iceberg. Particularly hard hit is the high end of the market, where 350 listings clog the slow-moving pipeline of $10 million-plus properties. (Official condo sales price numbers held up, but…
Tough times across the river. The grim first quarter stats—volume down 60 percent, average co-op prices down 24 percent—may only be the tip of the iceberg. Particularly hard hit is the high end of the market, where 350 listings clog the slow-moving pipeline of $10 million-plus properties. (Official condo sales price numbers held up, but that’s only because of long-standing contracts finally closing; condos still on the market are at a virtual stand-still.) Those who need to sell are having to resort to massive discounts: One philanthropist recently had to cut the original asking price on her 17-room West End Avenue apartment of $13.5 million by 46 percent to get a deal done, and even then she had to chop the space up into two apartments to find buyers. Jonathan Miller points to the lack of available credit for big purchases—any loan above $729,750 is harder to get and more expensive than conforming loans. It certainly doesn’t bode well for more expensive properties in Brooklyn, but at least we have more condos and co-ops that can be bought using conforming loans!
Housing Slump Hits Manhattan [NY Times]
Photo by yujie
thanks snark. guys, your middle school math teachers are throwing up in their mouths somewhere. and pete, you want median. mean is another word for average; it’s skewed up by big tickets.
If it’s an even number, then it is divisible by two and thus not a prime number.
Class dismissed.
Don’t know if it’s a prime number DIBS but it’s certainly not a standard one.
Somebody needs a remedial math class.
Hey DIBS:
Apparently you cut elementary school one times too many.
Sam, the former limit for a conforming loan (i.e., a loan that can be purchased by the government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) was $417k. It remains to this day $417k throughout most of the country but in certain, higher priced areas (mainly on the coasts) the limit was raised to $729,750 I believe around a year ago when the government started to take over these entities (though I could be wrong on timing). Don’t know how they came up with that $729k figure, agreed its an odd number, but then I never could figure out why it used to be $417k either.
Its also a prime number.
729,750 is an even number.
How many people are in the market for $10 million plus properties? And if you have that much money, is a mortgage going to be that hard to get, no matter the new restrictions?
The mind boggles.