In Second Quarter 2022, the Manhattan market once again performed strongly, with the highest dollar volume of closings ever recorded.
During 2Q 2022, the Manhattan market continued to perform well—sales activity held strong and pricing statistics climbed, resulting in the highest dollar volume of closings ever recorded.
- Closings rose 9% year-over-year to nearly 4,600 sales, the best second quarter for closings in 15 years.
- This was also the sixth consecutive quarter with sales growth, the longest streak since 1998.
- Sales dollar volume climbed 13% annually to a new record high of $9.52 billion.
Manhattan closed sale prices climbed year-over-year for the eighth consecutive quarter thanks to high demand, falling inventory, tightening negotiability, and a very active luxury market.
- Median price rose 4% to its second highest level ever at $1.246M thanks to a high number of closings over $5M.
- Average price per square foot rose 6% year-over-year to $1,834, similar to the past three quarters and 5% shy of the 1Q 2017 peak.
Even during a strong performing quarter, contracts signed—demand’s best indicator—cooled versus last year. The pullback versus such record high figures suggests that the Manhattan market is simply stabilizing to its typical patterns.
- Just over 4,100 contracts were signed in 2Q 2022, a robust figure that while down 18% year-over-year, was still 6% above the ten-year quarterly average.
- Contract activity indicated signs of normalizing versus the market exuberance and post-pandemic pent-up demand of 2021 and early 2022.
- A downshift is unsurprising in the face of headwinds like high inflation, rising mortgage rates, stock market turbulence, recession fears, and the war in Ukraine.
Inventory showed another year-over-year decline this quarter, but rose significantly versus last quarter, presenting an opportunity for prospective buyers to find replenished inventory across most of Manhattan.
- At about 7,500 units, inventory is at its lowest second quarter level since 2018 (excluding the market pause of 2020).
- The year-over-year percentage change was the smallest decline in a year and the quarter-over-quarter increase of 26% was double the typical first to second quarter seasonal uptick.