Manhattan’s real estate market is feeling the lazy days of summer as buyers and sellers head out of town for vacation, leading transactions to fall in the city, according to the weekly Olshan Report on Monday.
Only 14 contracts were signed for homes priced at $4 million or more in the week ending Sunday, according to the report. The slowdown comes a little bit later in the season than normal and follows weeks of robust activity—which is now likely to remain subdued until the start of the school year at the end of August.
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Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty and author of the report, put the summer doldrums in perspective, saying in the report that last week marked "the first dip below a total of 20 contracts since the last week of January."
Activity last week totaled roughly $141 million, around the same as last week, but a 36% drop from this time last month.
The most expensive home to find a buyer last week was a penthouse at 6 West 77th St., on the Upper West Side, asking $22.5 million. The seller is the estate of late bestselling nonfiction writer Nancy Friday, who died last year at the age of 84.
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The duplex is comprised of four units combined into one large home with a 3,200-square-foot home and four bedrooms.
The second most expensive home to go into contract was a townhouse on Downing Street in the West Village, asking just under $21 million. The contemporary, five-story house was redeveloped in 2012 and has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, five terraces and a roof deck, according to the Olshan Report.