From July 2024 to July 2025, 1 in 3 condos bought in Manhattan bought at a loss, based on luxurious actual property agency Brown Harris Stevens. Specialists say this dynamic is considerably typical in a metropolis with excessive promoting charges and excessive tax charges.
What’s uncommon is the borough’s wavering property values over the previous decade. In November 2015, 1 sq. foot of house in Manhattan price $1,562; by fall 2025, costs had fallen to $1,108 per sq. foot, based on Redfin knowledge.
Manhattan condominium and co-op values took a big swing down amid the Fed’s tightening of the U.S. financial system from 2022 to 2024. A dearth of international patrons additional dampened demand. Specialists level to shifts in international alternate charges between the U.S. greenback and currencies such because the euro.
“I feel there’s most likely extra upside over the subsequent 10 years than the final 10 years,” stated Jonathan Miller, CEO and founding father of Miller Samuel, an actual property appraisal and consulting agency.
Specialists say many first-time patrons are shut out of this high-end market. “I am seeing extra folks of their early 30s, and so they’re getting a little bit little bit of assist from their mother and father,” stated Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens. “They’re New Yorkers who’re going from uptown to downtown, empty nesters, … youthful households, … not a lot worldwide,” she stated in an interview with CNBC.
“That is truly why rents went up a lot, as a result of folks could not afford to purchase,” stated Pierre Debbas, an actual property lawyer within the New York metro area.
The median hire in Manhattan right now is $4,973, based on rental web site Zumper, a ten% enhance from the yr prior. A purchaser buying the median condominium in Manhattan — which sells for $1,650,000, based on knowledge from Miller Samuel — with a 20% down cost and a 6.25% mortgage might face month-to-month principal and curiosity funds north of $8,000.
In consequence, even rich New Yorkers are selecting to hire.
New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani campaigned on affordability points, gaining nationwide consideration.
His platform referred to as for increased taxes on the wealthy and a hire freeze for about 1 million rent-stabilized items all through the town. Specialists say this might increase the rents on an estimated 1.2 million market-rate items within the coming years.
“What that is going to trigger landlords to do is to push bills on the buildings they management which have extra open-market items,” stated Miller.
Watch the video above to see how Manhattan’s actual property market is shifting.
