In New York, real estate is increasingly something you inherit — not buy.
The share of Manhattan home sales involving a trust — a preferred tool for passing on wealth — surged to 28% last year in a sharp rise from 17% three years ago, data from real estate analytics firm Attom show.
Behind the trend is a combination of factors — including sky-high prices, shifting tax and transparency laws, and the first waves of a $100 trillion wealth transfer. Of course, not all trust beneficiaries are children, but brokers and wealth advisers all say it’s primarily parents who are using trusts to foot the bill on homes for their children — whether it’s a modest one-bedroom apartment in Murray Hill or a trophy penthouse on Billionaires Row.
“It’s hard to be self-made and buy property without generational wealth,” said Peter Zaitzeff, a Serhant agent who recently helped a client buy a $4 million apartment on Central Park West for his son using a trust. “You need to make or have a lot of money to be here.”
In 2024 the median sales price in Manhattan was a soaring $1.1 million and all-cash sales made up more than 60% of purchases, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
In a market like that, it can be difficult for many New Yorkers to purchase property, especially with high borrowing costs and record rent prices cutting into savings. Even doctors earning $350,000 can struggle to buy a home in the New York area. And with fewer self-made buyers in the market, the ultra-wealthy are making up a greater share of purchasers.
Frances Katzen, a luxury broker for Douglas Elliman, said as much as 60% of her sales last year were parents buying for their kids and that roughly 40% had used a trust.
“These clients want to avoid tax ramifications with their purchase and be discreet with their spending,” Katzen said.
A trust can help a family reduce or avoid estate taxes when a person dies, and it can limit a family’s exposure to gift tax rules. Many families have turned to trusts to lock in higher gift and estate tax exemptions passed during the first Trump administration. Plus, trusts can still offer some anonymity — unlike LLCs, which now require names to be disclosed after a recent legislative crackdown, according to Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of Miller Samuel.
Since Governor Kathy Hochul signed an amendment to the LLC Transparency Act last year, Serhant’s Zaitzeff said he’s seen high-net worth clients switch to trust purchases “in droves.” Like an LLC, a trust can shield a property from creditors, lawsuits or even divorce settlements, making them attractive to business owners and other high-liability professionals. The main difference, however, is a trust typically names a beneficiary and is intended for estate planning, whereas an LLC is more simply a business entity.
Moreover, experts expect the boom in trusts to continue with more rich baby boomers passing down their wealth, said Chayce Horton, a senior analyst at Cerulli Associates.
New York is home to about 350,000 millionaires and counting. And the next generation of inheritors has said luxury real estate is at the top of their wish list, according to Knight Frank. The shift can already be seen in trendy neighborhoods downtown where condos fetched an average sales price of more than $3 million last year, according to brokerage Douglas Elliman. In fact, a third of condos bought through trusts in 2024 were in hip parts of Manhattan including Soho, Tribeca and the West Village, Attom data showed.
“In areas like the West Village, there used to only be older people who were wealthy,” said Zaitzeff. “Now, it’s all 20-year-olds whose parents bought them a place.”
