The poorest performing submarket was the Bronx, in which there were only $151 million in sales in 1Q12. If annualized, this total would be down 20 percent from 2011 levels. This annualized total reflects a 72 percent drop from the 2007 peak of $2.2 billion. That is the worst performing submarket in terms of the extent to which it has recovered.
While the dollar volume of sales is widely quoted, we believe that the number of properties sold is much more indicative of market activity as a few very large transactions can have a profound impact on the dollar volume metric.
With regard to the number of properties sold, citywide in 1Q12, there were 547 properties sold, down 10 percent from the 606 sales in 4Q11. If annualized, 2012 is running at about 2,188 properties sold, 2 percent less than the 2,222 in all of 2011. This figure is up 55 percent from the 1,410 in 2009 and 56 percent below 2007’s peak of 5,018.
The best performing submarket in terms of number of properties sold was northern Manhattan, in which there were 34 sales and, if annualized, the 136 total would be up 10 percent from the 124 properties sold in 2011. Here, sales volume would remain 58 percent below the 2007 peak total. Manhattan is also very strong in terms of number of buildings sold, with 191 properties trading in 1Q12. This was the second consecutive quarterly drop for Manhattan from the 194 sales in 4Q11 and 213 in 3Q11. If we annualize the 191 sales, the total would, however, be up 9 percent from 2011. Manhattan has had the strongest recovery in terms of number of properties sold, as we are presently running at just 27 percent below 2007 peak levels.
