The real estate market in Manhattan is on its way back to normal — or at least something close to it.
The number of condo and co-op sales in the borough surged to 2,560 in the first quarter of 2025, up 28.8% from the same period last year, according to the latest report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The median sales price was just under $1.2 million, up 11% from 2024’s first quarter.
But despite what seems like a surge, the numbers were not out of sync with previous averages. The quarter’s numbers seem up, however, because they are being compared to those of an usually soft 2024, when buyers expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts to bring down mortgage rates.
“The market is getting back to zero, with ‘zero’ meaning parity with long-term norms,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel and author of the report.
High prices in the rental market in February also spurred sales activity, Miller said. The median cost of a Manhattan rental reached $4,500 in February.
About 58% of buyers last quarter bought in cash — normal for the past couple of years but still well above the decade average of 50%. That’s in part because the luxury market is outperforming the middle and lower ends of the spectrum, Miller said, and wealthy buyers can more easily purchase in cash. They are better able to navigate around the high interest rate environment because they are less likely to require a mortgage. The median price for luxury condos and co-ops reached $6,870,875, an increase of 18.5% over the same period last year.
The finances of high-dollar purchasers are often tied to the performance of the financial market. With the threat of tariffs pulling down stock prices, some of the surge in activity may be due to people hoping to make big financial purchases before markets fall further, Miller said.
Although there were more cash sales than mortgaged sales, financed sales rose at nearly twice the rate of cash sales year over year, 40% compared with 22%.
“That tells you that it’s been a three-year window of consumers waiting for mortgage rates to fall,” Miller said. Because mortgage rates have decreased only slightly in that period, buyers who could afford to decided to stop waiting and purchase anyway.
