Methodology
Market Reports and Data

• Miller Samuel Market Report Innovations


• First to track co-ops by price per square foot
• First to analyze square footage of all sales
• First to analyze the market by median sales price
• First to break out the market by bedrooms (Studio, 1, 2, 3, 4+)
• First to analyze market-wide apartment inventory
• First to analyze days on market and absorption
• First to drop price per room as an obsolete market indicator
• First to break out sales by specific neighborhoods
• First to analyze the uptown co-op and condo market
• First to analyze the co-op and condo market by zip code
• First to break out the suburban markets by quintiles

Purpose and Overview of Market Reports

Purpose To provide market-wide trends based on available historical information, not an appraisal of a specific property.

Improper Use It is improper to apply these statistics to the square footage, room count or other attributes of a specific property in order to estimate its market value. Improper use of this research would be akin to using the Dow Jones Industrial Average to price a specific stock in a portfolio. Amenities including, but not limited to view, physical condition, layout, quality and type of construction, square footage, number of bedrooms, lot size, financial condition and security have a significant influence on values within the same county, neighborhood, zip code, building, or any other market or sub-market.

Market-wide Sales Analysis The statistics presented in all of of the market reports available at MillerSamuel.com are based on all property sales available to us in each defined market area. Sales included in our reports are not limited to data provided by Prudential Douglas Elliman but are in fact, a market-wide research effort of the entire market.

Manhattan Market Specific Information

Types of Data Used Closed arms-length residential apartment sales were used. Medical and professional co-ops and condo sales as well as separate maid's and storage rooms were excluded.

Data Sources The primary data sources for Manhattan co-ops, condos and townhouses were ACRIS, Property Shark and other subscription services, managing agents, board members, lenders, buyers and sellers. The data used in these reports were collected during the normal course of business for Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel and do not represent all sales in their respective categories.

Manhattan online data To open a table that summarizes the type of Manhattan aggregate data available online, go here.

Location The data included in the Manhattan market reports on this site are located on the entire island of Manhattan. Prior to 1995-2004 Manhattan Market Report, the sales data used was located between Battery Park City and either West 116th Street or East 96th Street. The former Manhattan designation was re-named East Side + West Side + Downtown and the sales history was retained and will continue to be updated. Manhattan now means all of Manhattan and all historical Manhattan data has been revised top include the expanded market area.

Neighborhood Boundaries Several market areas were selected or combined with other neighborhoods and correspond with commonly known neighborhood boundaries. They were selected for their higher concentration of market activity. When a specific location is omitted, the lack of data density specific to it is usually the reason. To open a table that summarizes the neighborhood boundaries, go here.

Overlapping Market Areas Due to the inclusion of several sub-markets in several neighborhoods, the total of all areas analyzed do not equal the Manhattan totals. Manhattan has been presented a variety of different ways so that it may be useful to more readers.

Ownership Types The market reports include co-ops, condos and townhouses. The co-ops are owned as co-op interest. Cond-ops are considered within the co-op dataset since the individual apartment is allocated shares and functions as a co-op. Condos are owned in fee simple with the exception of those located in Battery Park City, one of the only condo developments known in New York state that are located on leased land.

Apartment sizes were determined by total number of rooms

Studio	1 to 2.5 rooms
One-bedroom	3 to 3.5 rooms
Two-bedroom	4 to 6.5 rooms
Three-bedroom	7 to 8.5 rooms
Four-bedroom	9 or more rooms

Long Island/Queens Market Specific Information

Types of Data Used Closed arms-length residential sales were used including houses and condos.

Data Sources The primary data source was the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island,Inc., NYC Sales Data and Property Shark.

Location The data included in the Long Island/Queens Market Overview covers the counties of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, excluding the Hamptons and the North Fork, which are analyzed in a separate report.

Sub-market boundaries North Shore Boundaries are defined as Kings Point to Laurel Hollow, north of the Long Island Expressway, north of route 25, within Nassau County

Hamptons/North Fork Market Specific Information

Types of Data Used Closed arms-length residential sales were used including houses and condos.

Data Sources The primary data source was the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island,Inc., OREX RealNet, Prudential Douglas Elliman, HREO and RTS.

Market Report Library

Quarterly Manhattan Market Overview A quarterly analysis of co-op and condo sales in Manhattan. Unlike the stock markets, apartment sales data continues to fall in the prior quarter as it becomes available because sales are usually not recorded at time of closing and may lag the closing date by several weeks or months. However, in order for the report to be useful and timely, the report represents a reliable analysis of market conditions during the quarter based on the sales data obtained by the end of the quarter.

Quarterly Long Island/Queens Market Overview A quarterly analysis of residential house and condo sales in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. Suffolk county excludes data from the Hamptons and the North Fork which are to be analyzed in a future report. Unlike the stock markets, housing sales data continues to fall in from the prior quarter as it becomes available because sales are usually not recorded at time of closing and may lag the closing date by several weeks or months. However, in order for the report to be useful and timely, the report represents a reliable analysis of market conditions during the quarter based on the sales data obtained by the end of the quarter.

Quarterly Hamptons/North Fork Market Overview A quarterly analysis of residential house and condo sales in the East End of Suffolk county. Unlike the stock markets, housing sales data continues to fall in from the prior quarter as it becomes available because sales are usually not recorded at time of closing and may lag the closing date by several weeks or months. However, in order for the report to be useful and timely, the report represents a reliable analysis of market conditions during the quarter based on the sales data obtained by the end of the quarter.

10-year Manhattan Market Report It is the compilation of data presented in the four quarterly reports plus additional analysis. New data collected after the posting dates of each quarterly report are not appended to the original data since each quarterly report represents a snap shot of the market at the time they were issued. Since historical data is continuously collected in day to day business, Miller Samuel reserves the right to update the results of these reports in the future or in other reports or studies.

10-year Manhattan Townhouse Report An annual analysis of Manhattan townhouse sales as a 10 year moving window. Dormant since 2003, the report will be revised an expanded in early 2007, covering the period 1997-2006.

Terminology

Townhouses One to five family houses that can be delivered vacant.

Luxury Top ten percent of all sales prices all properties to transfer in that particular period comprise the luxury market.

Loft This Manhattan sub-category is the analysis of all co-op and condo loft sales available. A loft is a former commercial or manufacturing property that was converted to residential use. There have been a handful of newly constructed projects that were designed to mimic the construction characteristics of turn-of-the-century properties and these are included in the loft statistics presented.

Statistics and Formulas

Number of Sales All available sales to occur in a specific market during the reporting period. This figure is not updated in subsequent quarters.

Average Price Per Square Foot The total of all apartment sales prices in a specific reporting period and market divided by the total square footage of all sales in that same period and market.

Average Sales Price The total of all apartment sales prices in a specific reporting period and market divided by the number of sales in that same market and reporting period.

Median Sales Price This is the number that is the middle point of all the sales prices in a data set. If the data set has an even number of data points, the average of the two middle numbers of the set is the median sales price.

Listing Inventory In Manhattan, listing inventory is collected by surveying the exclusive listings of top Manhattan real estate brokerage firms. The list of firms was developed based on our experience and Crain's New York Business Magazine's list of Largest Real Estate Brokerages which ranks them by annual direct property sales. In Long Island, aggregate listing totals are extracted from generating a query in the MLS of LI but analysis of individual listing sales is not available for detailed analysis. On the East End, inventory was obtained from a combination of using the LI MLS, HREO and Realnet.

Quintiles All sales in the quarter are sorted by price. The total number of sales are then divided into five equal groups. The average sales price of each fifth, or quintile results.

Days on Market The number of days from the last change in list price to the contract date.

Listing Discount The percentage difference between the last list price and the contract price. For example, a $1,000,000 last list price with a $950,000 indicates a 5% listing discount: ($1,000,000 - $950,000) / $1,000,000 = 5%.

Absorption The number of months it would take for all existing inventory to be sold without new inventory coming on the market. Its is calculated by taking the listing inventory and deducting the monthly number of sales. An increase in the number of months to absorb current housing stock indicates a weakening market. The number of sales for the quarter is divided by three to convert to a monthly average. For example, a 3,000 quarterly number of sales and a listing inventory of 6,000 would yield a 6 month absorption: (6,000) - (3,000/3) = 6 months.