NEW YORK CITY—Rounding out a year of historic highs in average sales price and total consideration—with growing activity in the outer boroughs—the residential sales market here closed 2016 with a moderate fourth quarter, according to the Real Estate Board of New York's residential sales report.

The average sales price for a home—including cooperatives, condominiums, and one-to-three-family dwellings—in the city rose 10% year-over-year to $924,000. That increase was driven by high-end condominium sales, which brought the average sales price for a Manhattan condo unit to a peak of $2.96 million this quarter. The average sales price for a condo in Brooklyn increased 12% to $983,000.

In the earlier portion of last year, several of these metrics reached levels never seen since REBNY began tracking home sales data in 2006. In the third quarter of 2016, the local residential sales market posted a record $13.6 billion in citywide total consideration. In Q2 meanwhile, the average sales price of a home here hit an all-time high of $1.02 million.

The median sales price of a home increased 6% to $575,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016, signaling that the demand for homes here is not only at the upper end of the market, REBNY states.

Home sales volume decreased year-over-year citywide and in each of the largest boroughs. The number of sales for all homes in here slipped 2% from the fourth quarter of last year to 11,837. The total number of home sales in Manhattan fell 8% to 2,801; 1% to 2,703 in Brooklyn; and 5% to 3,908 in Queens year-over-year.

“Home sales remain above average across the five boroughs with healthy price growth despite a slight decline in activity this quarter,” says John H. Banks, III, REBNY president. “Demand for all property types holds strong, setting the pace of activity for the start of 2017.”

Total residential sales consideration increased in each borough. Year-over-year, total consideration increased 9% to $5.5 billion in Manhattan; 7% to $2.3 billion in Brooklyn; 2% to $2.1 billion in Queens; 19% to $388.4 million in the Bronx; and 23% to $700.4 million in Staten Island.

Meanwhile, transactions for cooperative units in Manhattan fell in the fourth quarter, with sales on the Upper East Side declining 17%to 417, compared to 503 in the fourth quarter of 2015. The average sales price of a coop unit on the Upper East Side decreased 2% to $1.6 million.

The average sales price of condo unit in Williamsburg increased 18% year-over-year to $1,193,000. The number of condo sales in the Brooklyn neighborhood increased 87% to 140 sales this quarter, 72 of which were transacted at 429 Kent Ave.

In Queens, Rego Park/Forest Hills/Kew Gardens recorded 323 cooperative unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2016, a five percent increase from the fourth quarter of last year and the most coop sales recorded in any area of Queens this quarter. The average sales price of a coop unit in this area rose six percent to $292,000 year-over-year.

There were 119 one-to-three family home sales in the Woodlawn/Williamsbridge section of the Bronx this quarter, a 37% increase year-over-year. The average sales price of a one-to-three family dwelling in this area of the Bronx was $424,000, an increase of ten percent from the fourth quarter of 2015.

Download the full report here.

The median sales price of a home increased 6% to $575,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016, signaling that the demand for homes here is not only at the upper end of the market, REBNY states.

Download the full report here.

Instant Insights /

REBNY: Resi Sales Close 2016 Moderately

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