Streeteasy Q1 09 Market Report

Highlights show somewhat lower price declines than in the brokerage reports (which is somewhat notable, since so many accuse the brokerages of spinning or outright lying), but in general same story of significantly decreased volume and drops in resale prices. http://docs.streeteasy.com/market_reports/2009Q1_Report.pdf Summary of significant findings in Q1 2009 CLOSING PRICES CONTINUE TO DECLINE.... [more]

Highlights show somewhat lower price declines than in the brokerage reports (which is somewhat notable, since so many accuse the brokerages of spinning or outright lying), but in general same story of significantly decreased volume and drops in resale prices. http://docs.streeteasy.com/market_reports/2009Q1_Report.pdf Summary of significant findings in Q1 2009 CLOSING PRICES CONTINUE TO DECLINE. Condo and co-op resale prices have continued to decrease. New development closings have actually shown price gains but these reflect contracts that were signed months, and in some cases, years ago. The average Manhattan sales price increased by 0.7% to $1.435M since last quarter, but decreased by 12.1% since last year. • Condo resale median price declined to $895K, a 4.7% decrease since last quarter and a 7.5% decrease since last year. Average price is down 7.6% for the quarter and 10.8% since last year. • Co-op resale median price declined by 11.3% compared to last quarter and by 16.7% since last year. Average sales price declined by 17.1% since last quarter and by 25.8% since the prior year. • New Developments median sales price continued to increase by 10.4% since last quarter to $1.275M and increased by 26.4% since last year. Average sales price also increased by 17.5% since last quarter, and by 7.4% since last year. VOLUME OF SALES KEEPS FALLING. The number of closings has decreased by 47.1%, from the 2,826 closings of last quarter. Co-op resale closings have decreased by 40.3% since last quarter, while condo resales decreased by 39.6% and new developments dropped by 57.1%. New development closings made up 34.5% of the closings, while co-op resales dominated activity at 44.6%. WEEKLY INVENTORY CLIMBS OVER 11,000. Inventory of available units in Manhattan has steadily increased every week this quarter, staying above 9,400, and peaking above 11,700 in late-March. According to our listings database, an average of 403 new listings came onto market every week in this quarter, an increase of 9.2% since last quarter where we saw an average of 369 new listings per week. Condos made up 52.1% of all available listings on market this quarter (co-ops 46.9%, townhouses 1%). Inventory level this quarter is 40% higher than they were a year ago. FEWER BROKEN CONTRACTS AND SLIGHT INCREASE IN NEW CONTRACTS. This quarter, there were 107 broken contracts, a 24% decrease compared to last quarter’s 141. Additionally, there was a 7% increase in the number of listings (1,324) that have entered into contract compared to last quarter’s number of 1,233 listings. MORE DRAMATIC PRICE CUTS. This quarter, 37% of all Manhattan listings had price cuts. There were over 2,500 listings with price cuts in available listings for condos, a 33.5% increase since last quarter but more than 1.6 times the number of cuts since last year. Co-ops had a 31% increase in the number of price cuts, to just about 3,100 listings. The average price cut this quarter for condos was 9.4%, and for co-ops, the average cut was 9.3%. LISTINGS SPEND A LONGER TIME ON MARKET. The average time on market for condo resale listings increased by 24.1% since last quarter, while co-ops sat on the market for 8.1% longer than last quarter. This quarter, condo resales stayed on the market for an average of 137 days, while co-op resales were on the market for an average of 112 days. [less]