…The first quarter Manhattan housing market was
defined by the acute shortage of inventory. As
with many US housing markets, inventory in
Manhattan has been falling for several years;
this quarter, listing inventory posted its steepest
year-over-year drop in the 12 years we’ve been
recording it, declining 34.4% from the prior year
quarter to 4,960. This was the ninth consecutive
month and the 14th of the last 15 months that
has shown a year-over-year decline in inventory.
Despite the drop, number of sales increased
6.3% to 2,457 as consumers fought tight credit
conditions to take advantage of low mortgage
rates, and more still were incentivized by the
rise in rental prices over the past two years…