Roxana Baiceanu In our Q3 Investment Property Report, we see that in New York City, the number of closed transactions and the median sale price hit two year lows, yet some boroughs did better than others. Manhattan experienced a substantial quarterly increase in the dollar volume, passing $1.1 billion, even with the number of closed deals dropping. The Bronx had its largest multifamily sale ($67.7 million) in at least 5 years, despite two-year lows in both the number of sales and in the price indicators, while Staten Island had more sales
than in the previous two quarters despite a major drop in median prices. Queens and Brooklyn both had a significant decrease in the number of sales, while median prices in Brooklyn declined by 2% and median prices in Queens fell 12% compared to Q3 2007.
Transactions surge in Los Angeles as distressed properties flood the market: Los Angeles was the only city among the three in the report that had an increase in the number of sales compared to both Q3 2007 and Q2 2008. However, the increase in transactions was driven by the large number of distressed properties (trustee sales, notices of default or REO’s) in the market, predominantly in the 2-4 family building classes. Fifty four percent of all properties that sold in the third quarter of 2008 were in distress this year.
However, the median price per unit for Multifamily properties has been in free fall since Q4 2006.
