Q4 2015 Residential Sales Report

The New York City residential sales market had small increases in both average homes sales price and homes sales volume in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to last year’s fourth quarter.

The average sales price of a NYC home increased one percent to $843,000 compared to last year’s fourth quarter of $841,000 due to fewer sales recordings of condos in the ultra-luxury segment of the market. In the fourth quarter of 2015 there were six sales recorded at 157 West 57th with an average sales price of about $17 million, while in the fourth quarter of 2014 there were eleven sales with an average price of about $34 million. A decline in sales volumes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, whose average home sales prices are the highest in the city, combined with increasing sales in Queens and the Bronx, whose average home sales prices are considerably lower, also played a significant role in the lower average home sales prices within NYC in the fourth quarter.

The home sales markets in Queens and the Bronx had the largest gains this quarter. Home sales in Queens increased 6 percent to 4,098 compared to this quarter last year, in the Bronx homes sales increased to 876, a 10 percent increase compared to the fourth quarter.

Average home sales prices though increased the most in Brooklyn this quarter when compared to the same quarter last year. The average sales price of a home in Brooklyn during the fourth quarter of 2014 was $799,000, a 12 percent increase over the fourth quarter of last year.

This quarter, like the previous one was characterized by large increases in the Manhattan condo segment of the market. The average price of a Manhattan condo in the fourth quarter of 2015 was $2,185,000, a seven percent decrease from last year’s fourth quarter. The number of sales of Manhattan condominiums was 1,149 in this quarter, nine percent fewer than in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The total consideration for all residential sales in New York City during the fourth quarter of 2015 was $10.1 billion, up 3 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.

Total consideration for Manhattan was $5.01 billion for the fourth quarter of 2015, down 6.2 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. In Brooklyn, the total consideration of residential sales was $2.17 billion, an increase of 10.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The total consideration for Queens home sales was $2.04 billion, an increase of 14.7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year.