The Bigger the Condo, The Higher the Price Per Square Foot — But Only in Manhattan

Key Takeaways:

• Manhattan is the only borough where price per square foot rises with condo size, going from $1,370 for units smaller than 500 square feet to $2,515 for layouts over 2,500 square feet
• Brooklyn’s condo prices seem nearly disconnected from size: Buy a studio or a unit over 2,500 square feet in Brooklyn, you’ll pay essentially the same per square foot
• In Queens, smaller condos carry the pricing premium at $1,075 per-square-foot, three times higher than the $305 per square foot charged by condos over 2,500 square feet
• Staten Island’s limited condo stock also values smaller layouts, with units under 500 square feet sold at $416 per square foot, double the borough’s largest layouts
• Manhattan’s median price per square foot remained essentially flat since 2015, whereas every outer borough grew by double digits
• Brooklyn buyers matched the borough’s stock almost exactly in size, while Manhattan buyers reached for larger layouts and Queens owners for smaller

Analyzing more than a decade of NYC condo sales for a granular view of the relationship between price and size shows a market split not just by stock distribution, but also by unique trends and buyer preferences. In Manhattan, larger condos consistently command higher prices per square foot — a size premium that scales up with size and holds across nearly every neighborhood in the borough.

Meanwhile, the other four boroughs follow their own trends, some more pronounced — such as the pricing consistency of Brooklyn condos across size ranges or Queens’ inverted price and size relationship — while others like Staten Island and the Bronx are limited by their small condo stocks.

Reviewing some 136,000 NYC condo sales recorded between January 2015 and September 2026 reveals this present day split and the decade of movement that shaped it, including the narrowing distance between Manhattan’s condo price per square foot and the rest of the city.

That evolution also includes the gap between existing stock and what buyers have been choosing in the last decade, both at the borough level, as well as in individual neighborhoods.

Size & Price per Square Foot Today

Larger Condos Cost More Per Square Foot Only in Manhattan

Across NYC’s condo market, median price per square foot rises steadily with unit size, reaching $2,328 for the largest layouts (over 2,500 square feet). But there is one notable exception: The city’s smallest units (under 500 square feet) are priced higher than the lower end of the city’s mid-sized stock, likely lifted by Manhattan’s luxury studios and micro-unit stock.

As is often the case, the citywide picture is heavily distorted by Manhattan — the borough that supplied nearly half of all condo sales in the city — hiding the diverging borough-level trends. For example, Manhattan is the only borough where larger condos cost more per square foot, rising steadily from $1,370 per square foot for the smallest units, nearly doubling up to $2,515 for the largest layouts.

Manhattan also dominated the top of the NYC condo market, sustained by the generous square footage of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods. So, while the borough generated 46% of NYC’s condo sales overall, it supplied 71% of sales in the 2,000- to 2,500-square-foot range and 85% of sales above 2,500 square feet. Meaning that any citywide metric for larger condos is really an indicator for Manhattan trends.

At the same time, Brooklyn’s condo price metrics barely responded to size. Regardless of square footage, the median price per square foot falls within a $57 price range between $1,000 and $1,057. Put simply, in Brooklyn, a micro studio and a sprawling condo over 2,500 square feet trade at essentially the same price per square foot.

Brooklyn was also the only borough where transactional activity outpaced stock share over the past decade. So, while the borough holds a quarter (25%) of the citywide condo stock, it generated nearly one third (31%) of NYC condo sales since 2015, as a growing number of buyers turned from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Moving on to Queens and Staten Island, the condo price and size relationship follows an inverted path, placing the pricing premium on smaller layouts versus larger sizes. As such, condo prices for units under 500 square feet sold at a median $1,075 per square foot, more than three times the rate of units over 2,500 square feet.

Staten Island follows the same trend, although at a more muted rate, accounting for its limited condo stock that generated just over 5,000 sales since 2015. So, while the handful of large Staten Island condos sold for a median $203 per square foot, units under 500 square feet sold for more than double. That price and size relationship held steady within the mid-range sizes too, which accounted for the majority of the borough’s sales.

Notably, the Bronx has the smallest condo market of the five boroughs with fewer than 4,000 sales in the last decade. Across that limited pool of sales, condo prices fluctuate up and down across size ranges, with the lowest median condo price ($284 per square foot) recorded for the lower end of the mid-sized range.

That said, the Bronx’s thin condo market is split across a handful of small neighborhoods, tying price trends more to individual neighborhoods, rather than sizing or more generalized boroughwide preferences.

For example, Parkchester accounted for most sales of smaller units at lower prices and generating more than half of the borough’s transactional activity. Meanwhile, the handful of larger unit sales in Riverdale and City Island pushed rates higher for mid-sized and larger condos.

The Last Decade

Manhattan Stays Flat While Outer Boroughs Grow by Double Digits

NYC’s current size and price snapshot is the product of a decade of changing preferences, stock availability, market performance and rebound around the effects of the pandemic.

For example, condo prices for the pre-pandemic (2015-2019) and post-pandemic (2023-2026) periods were essentially the same as Manhattan’s median price per square foot barely moved (-0.2%). Conversely, every outer borough grew by double digits, from Brooklyn’s +22% to the Bronx’s +45%, but citywide gains were muted by Manhattan’s lack of movement.

Consequently, the price-per-square-foot gap between Manhattan and the outer boroughs narrowed: Pre-pandemic, Manhattan traded at $1,600 per square foot as compared to Brooklyn’s $921 for a spread of $679 per square foot. Now, post-pandemic, that spread narrowed to $471 per square foot following Brooklyn’s increases.

But growth in the outer boroughs didn’t land evenly across size ranges. In Brooklyn, prices in the units in the 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot range appreciated most, jumping 65% to reach $1,265 per square foot — the borough’s biggest gain by a wide margin. For comparison, Manhattan’s median price per square foot dropped in every size range with losses running between 1% and 5%.

At the same time, Queens grew across every size range but was strongest at the top with the 2,000- to 2,500-square-foot range climbing from $380 to $558 per square foot for a 47% gain. It’s worth noting here that Queens had only 169 transactions in this size range since 2015. The Bronx and Staten Island grew across every range, too, though their markets at the largest sizes are genuinely small, logging only a few dozen sales over the course of a decade.

Sold Sizes vs. Condo Stock

Manhattan Buyers Reach for Larger, Queens Buyers for Smaller & Brooklyn Buyers Like What the Borough Offers

It’s not just NYC condo prices where buyers’ preferences surfaced, but also in sizing, specifically what size condos they actually chose to buy from what was available in their borough and neighborhood. Citywide, the median condo that sold over the past decade measured 971 square feet compared to the 920-square-foot median size for NYC’s full condo stock, meaning buyers overall landed roughly 51 square feet above the typical NYC condo.

But buyers didn’t behave the same way from one borough to the next. In Manhattan, buyers chose larger units than what’s typical, with the median size of condos sold here 110 square feet above the median size of its existing stock (976 square feet). Manhattan buyers consistently chose larger condo layouts, reaching for larger units in 31 out of the 42 Manhattan neighborhoods in our study.

In this case, the most dramatic examples sit in the borough’s high-value pockets: Central Park South buyers landed 711 square feet above the neighborhood’s 1,197-square-foot median size. In Battery Park City, buyers came in 504 square feet above an 807-square-foot median, while Greenwich Village buyers reached 433 square feet above the typical 967-square-foot condo.

Additionally, Manhattan buyers selected smaller units in just seven neighborhoods, but in only one location did they buy meaningfully smaller units, with Marble Hill buyers choosing condos with a 644-square-foot median size, 156 square feet smaller than the neighborhood’s stock. Taken as a whole, that means that Manhattan’s buyer behavior showcases how the entire borough transacts, rather than highlighting the patterns of just a handful of luxury enclaves.

Next, Queens and Staten Island buyers went the opposite way, landing below what’s typically available. In Queens, buyers landed 21 square feet below the borough’s median condo size, with buyers in 27 of 52 analyzed neighborhoods choosing a unit that’s smaller than the median size of neighborhood condos.

For example, in Whitestone, buyers landed 198 square feet below the neighborhood’s 1,150-square-foot median, while, in Douglaston, they came in 159 square feet below the neighborhood’s median stock size.

Of course, there are a few neighborhood-level exceptions. For instance, Rockaway Park buyers went 254 square feet above the neighborhood’s 800-square-foot median condo size, transacting like a Manhattan neighborhood in a Queens borough. In the same way, Far Rockaway buyers aimed 132 square feet above the neighborhood’s 1,092-square-foot median size.

Staten Island showed the same preferences as Queens: Buyers landed 48 square feet below the borough’s median condo size. Plus, 18 of its 38 neighborhoods in this study showed the same downward reach versus 13 neighborhoods that aimed higher (and seven where buyers chose the same sizes).

In particular, New Dorp buyers swung widest, going 340 square feet lower than the neighborhood’s 1,083-square-foot median size, whereas in Bulls Head, they went 192 square feet smaller. Exceptions to this borough-level trend included St. George buyers, who chose units that were 108 square feet larger, while West Brighton buyers went 76 square feet larger.

Over in Brooklyn, buyers stayed consistent with borough stock neither stretching up, nor pulling down, with the median size of condos sold sitting within 13 square feet of its stock’s median size.

Moreover, in 48 of Brooklyn’s 52 neighborhoods, buyers chose just slightly above or just slightly below the typical neighborhood condo, with all but four of these locations well under 100 square feet of size parity. And, in locations like Kensington and Coney Island, buyers landed at exactly the neighborhood’s typical condo size.

Finally, in the Bronx, buyers generally chose units that were somewhat larger than the existing condo stock, with the median size of sold units 60 square feet over the borough’s median condo size. But, since the borough’s condo activity flows through just a handful of small neighborhoods with very different size and price profiles. As such, borough-wide buyer preference for sizes cannot reliably be determined.

Conclusions

A Decade of NYC Condo Prices: Buyer Choices and Potential Outlooks

Looking at 10+ years of NYC condo prices and sales, buyer preferences were reconfirmed and strengthened. Manhattan is undeniably the market for sprawling, expensive condo layouts and buyers are again and again choosing larger footprints, suggesting that Manhattan’s luxury condo market remains an attractive prospect, even as prices stagnate.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s growing condo market is consistently delivering what buyers are looking for, signaling continued price appreciation for the sector here. Condo buyers in the house-centric real estate landscapes of Queens and Staten Island’s are slowly shifting to more compact layouts overall but the strong price gains recorded across their limited stock of larger layouts signals at least some appetite for larger, more high-end developments.

As for the Bronx, its ultra-fragmented and unevenly distributed condo stock highlights how this asset type remains more of a detail of the Bronx real estate market, rather than an essential sector, leaving room for more growth.

All Data: Price per Square Foot by Neighborhood

Methodology

We extracted all NYC condo sales recorded between January 1, 2015, and September 7, 2026, totaling approximately 136,000 transactions. Units with unreliable square footage or sale price data were excluded. Only arm’s-length transactions were considered. Package deals were excluded.

For existing condo stock, we analyzed all condo units in the PropertyShark database with reliable square footage data, totaling approximately 256,000 units. Median and average square footage figures for existing stock were calculated based on this dataset.

The share of sales in each size bucket was calculated as a percentage of all sales in the given borough or neighborhood. The share of existing stock in each size bucket was calculated as a percentage of all condo units in the given borough or neighborhood.

Size ranges were defined as:

• Under 500 square feet
• 500 to 1,000 square feet
• 1,000 to 1,500 square feet
• 1,500 to 2,000 square feet
• 2,000 to 2,500 square feet
• Over 2,500 square feet

Timeframes were defined as:

• Pre-pandemic period: 2015-2019
• Pandemic era: 2020-2022
• Post-pandemic period: 2023-2026.

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