New York Real Estate Market Report – Q3 2020

New York Real Estate Market Report – Q3 2020

Douglas Elliman just released its 3rd quarter real estate reports for all of the brokerage’s key markets. This includes New York City, which is broken down into multiple reports focused on home sales and rentals in Manhattan, Northern Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

You can view and download all the New York Elliman Reports here.

Manhattan Real Estate Sales Data

Of course, we are focused on the Manhattan Sales Report for Q3 2020. This has been an unusual year for New York real estate, to say the least. The market was essentially shut down throughout most of March through June because of COVID-19, business has picked up for us since the market opened back up. However, a deeper look at the numbers shows some interesting trends.

The Manhattan market saw its highest inventory total since 2009. Yet, the market pace remains somewhat slow. Sales of smaller apartments in Q3 2020 were down significantly compared to Q3 2019, though the prices trended much higher year-over-year in almost every sales category. New development closings were also up significantly, achieving the highest overall market share in the past five quarters.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the Q3 2020 key performance indicators:

Co-ops & Condos:

• Average Sales Price ($2,179,777) was up 15.9% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (up 31.6% from Q3 2019).

• Total Number of Sales Closed (1,375) was up only 1.3% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (down 46.3% from Q3 2019).

• Average Number of Days on Market (143) was up 15.3% compared to Q2 2020 (up 57.1% from Q3 2019).

• Listing Inventory (9,319) was up 49.7% compared to Q2 2020 (up 26.8% from Q3 2019).


Luxury Homes:

• Average Sales Price ($10,1888,231) was up 28.8% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (up 60.4% from Q3 2019).

• Total Number of Sales Closed (139) was up only 2.2% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (down 46.7% from Q3 2019).

• Average Number of Days on Market (204) was up 31.6% compared to Q2 2020 (up 60.6% from Q3 2019).

• Listing Inventory (1,600) was up 14.6% compared to Q2 2020 (down 18.0% from Q3 2019).


New Development:

• Average Sales Price ($5,866,496) was up 36.7% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (up 54.5% from Q3 2019).

• Total Number of Sales Closed (214) was up 54.0% in Q3 compared to Q2 2020 (down 39.4% from Q3 2019).

• Average Number of Days on Market (267) was up 53.4% compared to Q2 2020 (up 100.8% from Q3 2019).

• Listing Inventory (1,043) was up 11.1% compared to Q2 2020 (up 6.1% from Q3 2019).

What We’re Seeing

Overall, we’re seeing a significant increase in inventory as the New York real estate market recovers from the shutdown, and prices are also on the rise. The average number of days on the market in each category are a little skewed by the fact that some of these listings were already up in Q2 when there wasn’t a lot of sales activity happening.

The New York real estate market was already in a slump coming out of 2019 and the controversial institution of the Mansion Tax, and then COVID certainly didn’t help. We saw a number of residents leave the city (at least temporarily) during the height of the coronavirus crisis and we may not see everyone come back until the city’s entertainment, restaurants and other businesses are back to normal operation again. Yet, the rise in listings and prices is very encouraging as the market slowly recovers.

Here to Help with All Your New York Real Estate Needs

If you have questions about the current state of the Manhattan real estate market or New York real estate, in general, let us know. We’ll be happy to share our professional insights as longtime local real estate brokers. The Elliman Reports show the raw market data, but that’s only part of the full story. Contact us today with any real estate inquiries you have.

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© 2023 Tom Postilio & Mickey Conlon