Manhattan Luxury Apartments Are Still Selling 

(Bloomberg) -- For now, New Yorkers are still in the mood to buy luxury homes.

Twenty-one contracts were signed for Manhattan apartments priced at $4 million or more last week, even as the coronavirus outbreak canceled public gatherings and had people out scouring for food and cleaning supplies, according to a weekly report from brokerage Olshan Realty Inc.

The number of deals topped the average of 19 for the first 11 weeks of the year, said Donna Olshan, president of the brokerage. But buyers gravitated toward less-expensive properties.

The value of all luxury contracts totaled $128.5 million, down 41% from the deals signed a week earlier. Sellers discounted asking prices an average of 13% from what they initially sought -- though the reductions will likely be higher once the purchases close and their negotiated prices are recorded.

“A combination of low interest rates and falling prices seems to have outweighed the fear and volatility,” Olshan wrote in the report.

The only contract for more than $10 million was for an Upper East Side duplex condo listed at $14.5 million. That was less than the $15.4 million the seller paid for the home in 2016, Olshan said. The 4,300-square-foot apartment with five bedrooms was first listed for sale in June 2018 for $16.9 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oshrat Carmiel in New York at ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Giammona at cgiammona@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus

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