Big Price Reductions Made For A Soft Week In The Luxury Market

The number of luxury contracts signed in the residential market last week looked a lot like this time last year. But prices were pushed way down due to big reductions on the week’s priciest deals, according to Olshan Realty’s luxury market report.

The week of the Martin Luther King holiday saw 18 contracts signed at $4 million and above, the same number from a year ago. But luxury units saw a 20 percent discount from their original to final ask, a result of developers who spent years marketing their units at what Olshan called “fantasy prices.”

The priciest contract signed was on the penthouse at DHA Capital’s 12 East 13th Street in Greenwich Village, which took a haircut of nearly 60 percent from its original ask. The 5,704-square-foot triplex went into contract with an asking price of $12.95 million, down from the $30.5 million it was asking when it first hit the market in December 2013.

That apartment was tied for the No. 1 spot with a resale at 213 West 23rd Street, which had an asking price of $12.95 million as well. That was reduced from the original ask of $14.5 million when it was first listed in October 2016.

The weekly asking-price volume for luxury contracts totaled $149.46 million, and luxury homes spent an average of 787 days on the market. [Olshan] – Rich Bockmann