Got Lots of Cash? This Co-op and Condo Market Is for You.

The Manhattan co-op and condo market is behaving like a card-carrying schizophrenic.

While sales of Manhattan co-ops and condos plunged 39.4% in the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of 2022 according to the latest edition of the Elliman Report, all-cash buyers accounted for two-thirds of all closings, an all-time high.

Cash buyers are more prevalent as listings go up in price, Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and author of the report, tells Brick Underground. Cash buyers represent 58.2% of buyers for properties in the $500,000 to $1 million price range, rising to 75.4% for properties $5 million and up. In other words, in the uppermost reaches of the market, cash is the uncontested king.

“The high end of the market is showing a lot of strength,” Miller says, even though there’s less activity than a year ago. The median sales price for the luxury market, which represents the top 10% of the market, was $6.7 million, a 3.9% increase over the prior year and the fifth rise in six quarters. The market share of luxury bidding wars was the third highest on record.

“There was a noticeable uptick in high-end activity despite a significant decline in new inventory,” Miller says. Luxury listings were down 8.4% year over year, the first drop in four quarters.

And what about that steep 39.4% overall drop in sales during the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of last year? It's like comparing apples and avocados. The real estate market in the second quarter of 2022 was a “rocket ship,” Miller says. As a result, comparisons against that sales frenzy are skewed.