Manhattan Apartment Prices Dip during July & June

[Daily News] 8/22/06 Manhattan apartment prices dropped in July from June, according to one new market report, with the median drifting down 6.4 percent to $747,750. The average sales price also dropped, according to the report from Halstead Property, from $1,309,044 in June to $1,151,793 in July. Still, July marked at least the 18th month in a row that the average sales price of a Manhattan apartment stayed above $1 million, according to reports.

Although gauging the Manhattan market by month is difficult, the Halstead numbers for July gel with other data that show a market this summer continuing to ease off the record pace of 2005. The number of Manhattan apartment sales in the second quarter ending June 30 dropped 3.5 percent from the first quarter to 1,934, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That marked the lowest second-quarter sales level in five years. And listing inventory on the island expanded 10.7 percent quarter over quarter to 7,640 units. The number of days it takes to sell an apartment rose to an average of 144 days in the second quarter, up nearly a week from the first few months of 2006