New York City’s Luxury Real Estate Market Was Battered in 2019

(Bloomberg) -- It was a rough year for New York’s luxury real estate market.

Contracts signed for homes in Manhattan priced at $4 million or more fell 16% in 2019, with the total value of those deals sliding to $7.65 billion, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report by luxury brokerage Olshan Realty Inc.

The luxury market in New York City is hurting, with inventory piling up as developers struggle to find takers for high-end properties. Foreign buyers who just a few years were ago were gobbling up condos for cash have all but disappeared, while tax law changes have also hurt the market.

Even with low interest rates, a federal law enacted in 2018 that limits write-offs for local levies to $10,000 “set the market in a downward spiral, and we have not recovered since,” said Donna Olshan, the firm’s president.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nic Querolo in New York at jquerolo1@bloomberg.net

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

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