Eighteen contracts were signed for luxury properties—defined as those priced at $4 million and above—in Manhattan last week, according to Monday’s Olshan Report, for a total sales volume of more than $149 million.
The figures are typical for this time of year. The same number of contracts were signed last year in the days following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for a similar sales volume of almost $144 million.
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But this year there were two big differences, properties that found buyers last week spent an average of 787 days—a little over two years—on the market and were discounted by an average of 20% before going to contract, said Donna Olshan in the weekly report. In comparison, the properties in contract at the same time last year spent an average of 443 days on the market and were reduced by an average of 9%.
Those abnormal numbers were skewed by a couple of sales by developers, "who spent years marketing their units at fantasy prices," Ms. Olshan wrote.
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Two condo sales tied for the priciest transaction of the week: a penthouse at 12 East 13th St. in Greenwich Village that was asking $12.95 million, a steep discount from the $30.5 million it was asking when listed in December 2013; and a four-bedroom unit at 213 West 23rd St. in Chelsea that was most recently asking $12.95 million, reduced from $14.5 million when it was listed in October 2016.
Of the 18 contracts signed, 13 were condos, three were co-ops, one was a townhouse and one was a condop.