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Manhattan Had Its Fifth Consecutive Year of Price Increases

Median sales prices reached a record $1.14 million last year

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Alexander Spatari / Getty Images
Alexander Spatari / Getty Images

Manhattan has now recorded its fifth consecutive year of rising home prices, according to a new report.

The median sales price hit an all-time record high of $1.14 million in 2017, as expensive contracts signed at the height of the luxury development boom in 2014-2015 closed, according to a "Manhattan Decade" report released Thursday from Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The report covers co-op and condo sales from 2008 through 2017.

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Median pricewasn’t the only record. The borough’s average price per square foot ($1,775) and average sales price ($2,053,273) also set records last year, according to the data.

There were three times as many homes sold with four or more bedrooms in 2017 than in 2008. Annual sales of three-bedrooms also tripled over the past decade, according to the data.

"We’ve had prolific development of very large luxury units," Mr. Miller said.

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By contrast, sales of studios and one-bedrooms declined over the past 10 years.

Most aspects of Manhattan’s housing market have recovered from the U.S. housing bust from 2008 to 2012, and then some. But annual sales are still down 11% off of their high in 2007, when 13,430 homes sold—a result of more stringent lending rules in the wake of the financial collapse, Mr. Miller said.

The pre-crisis peak in sales shows how lax lending rules were, said Mr. Miller. "You just had to have a pulse to get a mortgage."

Statistics Douglas Elliman released ahead of the report did not break out Manhattan’s luxury housing sector.