PropertyShark.com, in collaboration with the Corcoran Group, released the first Corcoran Report with sales data audited and supplemented by PropertyShark.com. The Corcoran Report covers Manhattan residential real estate sales for the second quarter of 2008.
"There is a lot of information available about real estate sales these days, not all of which is easy to comprehend" said Pamela Liebman, the Corcoran Group's chief-executive-officer. "That's why, in order to capture the fullest and most accurate data set we could possibly obtain, we approached PropertyShark.com about becoming our collaborator in the report."
The Corcoran Report seeks to inform homeowners about the relative value of their property while also educating potential buyers about what they might spend for different property types. It segments the Manhattan market into regions (downtown, midtown west, midtown east, upper west side, upper east side, and uptown) by property type (coop, condo, townhouse) and by whether it is a new development or a resale. The new development segmentation was added so as not to skew current re-sale prices with prices from closings of new development units that may have been in contract for 12-24 months.
"We are confident that the combination of Corcoran's market knowledge and PropertyShark's data handling expertise will bring valuable insight to anyone considering buying or selling a home," said Matthew Haines, the founder and chairman of PropertyShark.com. "Part of what attracted PropertyShark to this project was Corcoran's interest in getting to the heart of the matter and simply 'telling the story like it is'."
According to the information the companies compiled, during the second quarter of 2008, the number of residential sales transactions declined by 38 percent compared to the same period in 2007, with re-sale transactions showing the largest decline. Additionally, the median sale price raised 13 percent over the same quarter in 2007. However, median price was down 2 percent for re-sale properties and up by 48 percent for new development units.
The data also indicated that for re-sales, the uptown Manhattan market had the largest increase in median sale price compared to the same quarter last year. Among new development sales, the upper west side showed the greatest median sale price increase compared to the second quarter of 2007.
"There has been much discussion of the slower level of sales activity this year and, with sales off 38 percent from the same time a year ago, this quarter provides perhaps the starkest example yet of the caution that has overtaken the market" Liebman added. "By contrast, prices continue to be stable in both the re-sale and new development arenas, demonstrating once again the resiliency of residential real estate value in the borough."