Luxury home prices in Manhattan have tumbled to their lowest level in years, and it proves that sellers are still struggling to offload prime real estate
by Libertina Brandt- A new report by StreetEasy revealed that in the fourth quarter of 2019, the price threshold for Manhattan luxury homes fell to its lowest level since 2013.
- The report also found that Manhattan's luxury inventory rose 12.2% over the previous year. Its total sales inventory rose 3%.
- The numbers in the report indicate that sellers are becoming more willing to accept lower prices in order to offload their homes.
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The price threshold for Manhattan luxury homes fell to $3,816,835 in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a report by the real-estate listing platform, StreetEasy.
This means that in order for a home to fall into the luxury sector of Manhattan's market, it must be priced at or above $3,816,835. According to the report, the price threshold has fallen to its lowest level since 2013 and saw a 6.1% drop from last year.
The report also found that in the fourth quarter of 2019, the median home price in Manhattan fell 3.7% to $1,086,217 and the median amount of days a home lingered on the market rose to 96 — 10 days more than the median last year.
There's a growing supply of luxury homes in Manhattan, but buyers are limited
Despite the fourth-quarter price drops, StreetEasy revealed that Manhattan's luxury inventory rose 12.2% over the previous year and its total sales inventory rose 3%.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that, according to an analysis by Halstead Development Marketing, Manhattan has 7,050 unsold newly built units. If inventory continues to unload at the same pace as 2019, it could take over six years to sell all of the borough's unsold units.
Considering the glut of prime real estate, it's no surprise that luxury homes are sitting on the market longer — and with lower price tags — than previous years.
In July, one of Manhattan's top real-estate brokers, Lisa K. Lippman, told Business Insider that a lot of sellers in Manhattan have to come to terms with the fact that their properties are no longer valued at the same prices they were a few years ago. She also told Business Insider that since there is so much inventory, when a property gets an offer, sellers have to act fast or the buyer will move on to another option.