The housing market saw year-over-year gains
in sales for the fourth quarter. There were 1,558
sales, 6.1% more than 1,468 in the same quarter
last year. The increase in sales was largely due
to the increase in market share for co-ops,
which comprised 22.5% of all borough sales,
up from 18.7% over the same period. The surge
in lower priced co-op sales was a result of the
sharp decline in mortgage rates during the fall
after the S&P downgrade of US debt, which
occurred at the end of the summer. Listing
inventory declined 4.8% over the same period
to 5,908 from 6,203 in the same quarter last
year. As a result, the number of months to sell all
inventory at the current pace of sales fell to 11.4
from 12.7 over the same period, but above the
10.4 average of the past three-and-a-half years.