The very top of the New York real estate market is roaring, while the real estate domain of the "merely rich" —homes in the $5 million to $20 million range—lags behind.
It was enough to make Kirk Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling, declare "$80 million is the new $20 million" in a new report on the luxury residential market, according to The Wall Street Journal's Josh Barbanel.
In 2008, prices at the highest end of the New York market hovered around $40 million, and the record sale price was around $6,000 per square foot, Henckels told The WSJ. Today, that figure has risen to more than $10,000 per square foot.
The biggest sale in New York in the past year was Sandy Weill's $88 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West, which was bought by a Russian oligarch who paid the full asking price. A penthouse at the still-under-construction One57 reportedly went for more than $90 million, and there's currently a $100 million apartment on the market and two more that are asking $95 million.
At the same time, residential properties in the $5 million to $20 million range have not fared so well. Writes Barbanel:
...the report said that there were 388 sales of $5 million this year through August, a decline by 7.4% compared with the same period in 2011, with prices between $5 million and $20 million increased slightly.
Steeper declines in sales co-ops and condominiums were offset in part by an increase in townhouse sales.
Now check out the most expensive apartment currently for sale in NYC >
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