Manhattan home sales slide in first quarter

Home sales in Manhattan plunged by the most since the recession as buyers at all price levels drove hard bargains and were in no rush to close deals.

Sales of all condos and coops fell 25 per cent inthe first quarter froma year earlier to 2,180, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. It was the biggest annual decline since the second quarter of 2009, when Manhattan’s property market froze in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc’s bankruptcy filing and the global financial crisis that followed.

The drop in sales spanned from the highest reaches of the luxury market to workaday studios and onebedrooms. Buyers, who have noticed that home prices are no longer climbing as sharply as they have been, are realising they can afford to be picky. Rising borrowing costs and new federal limits on tax deductions for mortgage interest and state and local levies also are making home ownership more expensive, giving shoppers even more reasons to push back on a listing’s price— or walk away.

While just a few years ago, bidding wars were the norm, “there’s nothing out there today that points to prices going up, and inmany buyers’ minds, they point to being flat,” said Pamela Liebman, CEO of brokerage Corcoran Group. “They’re now aggressive in the oppositeway: putting in very low offers and seeing what concessions they can get from the sellers.”

Sales of all condos and co- ops fell 25 per cent in the first quarter froma year earlier.