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Manhattan Luxury Has Unusually Strong Summer Sales Week

Many of the homes that went into contract last week had been on the market for well over a year

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The sun sets over Manhattan.

Inigo Cia / Getty Images
The sun sets over Manhattan.
Inigo Cia / Getty Images

The Manhattan luxury market bounced back from its summer doldrums in a major way last week, according to the latest Olshan Report.

In the week ending Sunday, 26 homes priced over $4 million went into contract, a surge from the prior week and the highest number of weekly transactions in July since Olshan Realty began tracking the luxury market in 2006, according to its report published Monday.

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Sales volume skyrocketed to $236 million, a 140% jump from the previous week.

Sellers, particularly developers, were certainly ready to unload their high-end properties as the average unit that found a buyer last week was on the market for a whopping 536 days and took a 15% discount from the original asking price.

The biggest deal last week was for a set of two units at the newly developed One West End along the Hudson River, for a combined price of $27.15 million. Together, the units span two floors and roughly 8,500 square feet, plus an additional 3,300 square feet of terrace space.

The second most expensive home to sell was a townhouse in Nolita asking $23.5 million. The house used to be the west wing of the Old Saint Patrick’s School and Convent that developers purchased in 2014 for $8.8 million.

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The developer is among the many sellers last week that have been trying to unload property for over one year. This seven-bedroom townhouse with an elevator listed in 2015 for for $25 million, according to the report.

In fact, "almost half of the apartments that went to contract were sold by developers," wrote Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty and author of the report, "a signal that new condos are in discount mode."