With only 1 week left in the month, only 7 new listings for Central Harlem and Hamilton Heights townhouses have been brought to the market in June, so far. Two of those listings were for under $2 million.
The most expensive June listings are two Hamilton Heights homes which have the same price tag of $4 million each. This is in stark contrast to the months of April and May where there were nearly 20 new listings each month and very few contracts. Full report coming next week.
According to the latest report from listings site Streeteasy, Manhattan inventory rose 16% year over year with the largest uptick in inventory being the Upper East side. On the Upper East side, the inventory increased 20.2%. According to their analysis which is consistent with what I am observing in the field, 16% of the homes on the market received discounts which is an increase year over year of 3.6%.
Recently, I showed a client a couple of townhouses in Harlem and one had an original ask of $2.99 and now is down to $2.3 million and another started at $2.75 million and now is down to $2.25 million.
The Author- 
Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
According to the latest data, there are 85 active listings in the market on the listings website streeteasy in Central Harlem and Hamilton Heights. 36 of these listings have at one point or another been reduced from their original asking prices and some more than once. This data shows that seller’s expectations were not in line with the current market and as a result, adjustments have been made to price sometimes not once but twice. In this market, buyers are even more hesitant to get involved with buildings that have issues or are expecting more of a discount to do so.
Between April and May we saw approximately 40 new townhouse listings and few contracts. Halfway through June, only 4 Harlem townhouses have been brought to the market.
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
In the month of May, the townhouse market for Harlem continue to show steady inventory increase but with limited sales. See below table. 19 new listings came into the market and there were 6 closings. The high price for new listings was a renovated property which is asking $4.725 million and the low price is an SRO building at 361 W 116 street which is asking $1,850,000.
The total # of listings available in the Central Harlem,Hamilton Heights market is 85 with an average asking price of $3.156 million. Days on the market is an average of 116 and inventory is on the rise as we have over 14 months of supply available as of now.
According to a recent report, the residential listings in Soho are experiencing price cuts of approximately 10% and usually are chopped another 5% after that. The market like many neighborhoods in Manhattan is a buyer’s market. Seller’s expectations are coming down but as this is happening in Soho, the sellers do not have to sell so the market is at an impasse.
The below table shows the number of active listings by bedroom count in Soho.
| # Bedrooms | Active | Low Price | High Price |
| 1 | 36 | $580,000 | $11,000,000 |
| 2 | 58 | $630,000 | $12,250,000 |
| 3 + | 80 | $1,995,000 | $40,500,000 |
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
According to the latest report by Streeteasy, the Manhattan rental market is stabilizing ahead of the peak summer rental season as the sales market is still declining. I think this is supporting by what I am seeing with the summer rental market in full swing and the sales market struggling especially as owner’s expectations come to grips with the new buyer market conditions.
The median asking price on the upper west side of Manhattan is down about 10% year over year but this is also skewed by new development impact which pulls the median asking price higher. Now that the market has slowed, new development activity has slowed and the smart developers are bringing to market more affordable luxury product.
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
According to a recent report by City Realty, buildings such as 15 Central Park west out performed the stock market over the last decade. Buildings with tons of amenities, famous architects(starchitects) and celebrity residents certainly do get lots of attention but are they truly worth the investment? According to the report, the compound annual growth rate at 15 CPW was 6.84% compared to stock market which was -2% and gold which was 3.2%.
Recently, I had a client that sold their Manhattan townhouse for $15 million to an investor. Is this a good investment for the buyer? According to most experienced Manhattan real estate brokers, 2016 was more or less the peak of the ultra luxury market and since then we are in a buyer’s market. There are certainly a fair amount of coverage in the press of buyers who are liquidating investments in ultra luxury, new development buildings that are being sold for less than they paid.
One strategy to increase liquidity, would be to split that investment up to smaller investments. The 2 bedroom/2 bathroom market continues to be a sweet spot as it’s the family sized apartment that is within reach of many buyers. Also, performing really well now is the multi-family market. Would it have made more sense to buy a 1-2 buildings with anywhere from 6-40 units? With professional management, these properties have been performing well and continue to perform well right now as there is a shortage of inventory.
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
Manhattan’s luxury market continues to record strong sales this spring with 21 contracts signed last week for properties at $4mm and above. Roughly half of those contracts were signed for downtown properties.
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
24 Luxury contracts were signed last week for property $4mm and above in Manhattan. Discounts drove the action as the average discount from the listing price is over 10%. It’s not unusual that property owners who purchased in the last 3 years are selling at a loss in order to liquidate.
In other reports, rents are still trending down with concessions like free month’s rent and owner paid broker fees fueling activity especially in new developments where 90% of the apartments were rented with concessions. Just under half (44%) of the new leases signed in Manhattan in April included concessions.
Does it make sense for a Manhattan owner to pay the broker fee?
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
According to analysis done today, there are 78 townhouses for sale in Central Harlem and Hamilton Heights ranging from $1.7 million to $5.7 million. There are 20 buildings in this area in contract bringing the total number of active plus contract to 98.
Most but not all of these 20 contracts were signed within the first four months of the year. 34 listings closed since the beginning of the year. That means there is approximately 10 months of existing supply in the market at this time.
| Active listings | Contracts | Sold |
| 78 | 20 | 34 |
For that reason, even listings in Central Harlem and Hamilton Heights that look to be very attractively priced are languishing on the market and price reductions are pretty steep these days.
The Author- Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.
