[As serial bullshitters, we hold great admiration for anyone who's able to analyze the NYC real estate market using actual facts and figures. And so it is with Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of real-estate appraiser Miller Samuel and plotter of hot graphs. Today, we are proud to introduce a new feature in which Miller himself will present a slice of the NYC real estate market in graphic form and tell us what it all means. Finally, a voice to class up the joint. First up: Manhattan condo sales vs. co-op sales, from 1989 to the 2nd quarter of 2005.]
By charting Manhattan co-ops and condos separately, the average price spread between co-ops and condos has expanded since 2000. Does this really mean that condo values grew faster than co-op values? Not really. The average size of a condo unit that sold over the past five years increased as developers opted to build larger units to capitalize on that old axiom of Manhattan real estate that "price per square foot increases with size."
· Miller Samuel: Manhattan Average Sales Price [Miller Samuel]