While New York City has one of the highest shares of renter households in the country, at roughly 70%, the for-sale housing market is one of the most diverse with home prices ranging from under $500K to over $75 million. The housing market includes single-family homes (primarily in the outer boroughs), condos, townhomes, and co-ops. The focus of this Spotlight is the condominium segment where we analyze the share of new versus resale units and trend in sales across both segments during the last five years.
The table below details the number of monthly condominium contract sales for new and resale condominiums across the five boroughs between February 2019 and February 2024, the most recent month for which there is a full month’s data available.
The majority of contract sales occur in the densely populated borough of Manhattan, followed by the largest borough, Brooklyn. A much smaller percentage of for-sale contracts occurs in Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Over the last five years the share of contract sales within the resale segment of the market has averaged 60% while the new development segment has averaged 40%.
With respect to market trends, sales tend to peak around late winter/early spring (often in March) highlighting the seasonality in both the new and resale segment of the New York City real estate market. Sales activity tends to taper off after the Spring boom with a smaller uptick in activity returning in the Fall (around October). In recent years, the typical seasonal trend has been upended at times by external (Covid-19) and internal (rapid rise in mortgage rates starting in 2022) shocks. The former pushed what would have been the Spring 2020 seasonal uptick in sales activity into the late summer and fall. The latter’s influence depressed sales activity throughout the second half of 2022 into 2023 (relative to prior years).
All information is from sources deemed reliable but no guarantee is made as to its accuracy. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and is subject to human errors, omissions, changes or withdrawals without notice.
