Manhattan’s high-end market hit a hot streak in Q1

2 April 2025

For agents in Manhattan, it paid to be trading at the top last quarter.

The borough’s residential market picked up steam in the first three months of the year, powered by rising prices and an uptick in sales in the luxury sector, according to Miller Samuel’s quarterly report for Douglas Elliman.

With mortgage rates still hovering well above 6 percent, the luxury segment — defined in the report as the top 10 percent of sales — outpaced the overall market, as most buyers close deals with cash, report author Jonathan Miller said.

“That’s where all the action is,” Miller said.

Miller also pointed to the stock market’s downturn as a potential catalyst for deals, as President Donald Trump’s administration prepares to roll out new trade policies — “tariff tantrums,” as Miller called them.

“My thinking is that maybe there was some urgency to move sooner rather than later, before there was more damage in the financial markets,” Miller said.

Luxury co-op and condo sales in Manhattan rose nearly 30 percent in the first quarter, up to 250 from 200 in the same period last year. The average sale price of a luxury home grew 37 percent year-over-year to $10.3 million — the highest quarterly average on record.

Last month, a financier’s condo at 150 Charles Street set a new Downtown Manhattan record when it sold for $60 million in an off-market deal. The closing price was nearly double what the sellers, investment services executive Harsh Padia and his wife, interior designer Purvi Padia, paid for it in 2016.

With deals on the rise, inventory in the luxury sector fell sharply, with fewer new listings hitting the market to cover the gap. Last quarter, the number of listings dropped 24 percent annually, down from more than 1,600 to roughly 1,200.

While luxury listings dipped, inventory in the overall market rose slightly in the first quarter. Co-op and condo listings across the borough increased roughly 8 percent year-over-year, up from 6,900 to 7,400.

Transactions and sale prices also ticked upwards last quarter, though Miller cautioned that the scale of the increases is “somewhat exaggerated” because the first quarter of 2024 was “unusually weak.”

The number of closed sales was up 29 percent in the first quarter, from 2,000 to 2,600. The average sales price hit $2.2 million, a 21 percent uptick from $1.8 million in the same period last year.

Though the metrics were likely skewed by the market’s performance in the first quarter, Miller said the positive growth was still a sign of urgency among consumers.

“The numbers are higher for a reason,” Miller said.