Putting the hyper-luxury buzz to the side, the dependable segment of the Manhattan market is between $1.5 million and $3.5 million.
The segment accounted for a full 20 percent of the entire Manhattan market — or roughly 6,285 sales — between January 2013 and January 2015, according to an analysis by The Real Deal magazine of data from the listings website StreetEasy.
Just 1 percent of all Manhattan condo and co-op sales tracked by StreetEasy during that time pulled in $10 million or more, while 4 percent went for $5 million or more.
And the $1.5 million-to-$3.5 million bracket is growing, judging by active sales listings. In mid-February, there were 1,113 Manhattan condos and co-ops listed in that price range, of 4,600 listings total, the data shows. That’s 24 percent of the total market.
Several top real estate executives have been advising developers for several years to build condos at the lower luxury price point.
For example, at 540West, a 110-unit condo at 540 West 49th Street, about a third of the units are priced in the $1.5-to-$3.5-million range and no units are listed for more than $4 million.
While the project’s location between 10th and 11th avenues may not warrant higher prices, the units there are selling at a rapid pace.
Similarly, the majority of listings at 50 West, the crystalline 64-story, 191-unit spire going up in the Financial District, fall in the same price range.
That crop of mid-market listings is all the more surprising considering current land costs. As land prices have risen, developers feel increasingly compelled to build outrageously expensive apartments in order to pencil out their projects. As a result, many of the new development buildings with units listed in this price range are located in up-and-coming areas.