Manhattan Market Overview: Week of December 15, 2025
Late December in Manhattan real estate feels a bit like the city right before a snowstorm: the streets are quieter, but the energy beneath the surface is very much alive. The week of December 15th was precisely that kind of week; Mid‑December in Manhattan, when the city slows for the holidays but never quite stops, with streets full of lights and year‑end plans, yet a market still very much doing business, just more quietly, and more selectively.
How Co‑ops Performed Across Manhattan Neighborhoods
On the co‑op front, Midtown was the workhorse of the week. With 12 new listings and 48 contracts signed around a median of $725,000, it was the clear magnet for value‑oriented buyers who wanted central access without stretching into luxury pricing. The Upper East Side, by contrast, showed steadier but more expensive activity: seven new co‑ops, 32 signed contracts, and a median deal price of $1.25M. Downtown, as usual, leaned into lifestyle: only five new listings but 21 signed contracts at a median just under $1.5M, reflecting buyers’ willingness to pay up for character, location, and design rather than just square footage.
Condo and Condop Activity in Core Manhattan Markets
Condos and condops told a slightly different story, one that sits closer to the top of the market but follows the same logic. Midtown and Downtown together produced 47 condo contracts, with Midtown’s median contract price at about $1.78M and Downtown at just over $2.06M. The Upper East Side was fascinating: nine new condo listings at a median asking price north of $3.2M, but 25 signed contracts at a much lower median of $1.79M. That gap between what’s being brought to market and where buyers are actually transacting is a quiet reminder that price discovery is still happening. Sellers who meet the moment, not the memory of a past market, are the ones getting to the closing table.
What This Means for Condo Buyers and Sellers
Sellers who meet the moment, not the memory of a past market, are the ones getting to the closing table. Buyers, meanwhile, are using these gaps between ask and contract prices to identify where real value lives, especially in established buildings with strong boards and amenities.
What Townhouse Sales Reveal About High‑End Demand
In the townhouse segment, the theme was precision rather than volume. Only a handful of properties moved, but the ones that did were meaningful. On the Upper East Side, a single new townhouse came on at $20.5M, while two others went to contract at a median of $9.8M. Midtown saw two new townhouse listings around $4.15M and one contract at $3.495M. This is not the broad, frenzied townhouse market of 2021; this is a surgical one where buyers and sellers meet only when price, location, and condition line up almost perfectly.
Sales Activity by Price Tier: Where Buyers Are Most Active
If you step back from individual neighborhoods and look at the market by price tier, the shape of demand becomes clearer. From the Upper East Side to Downtown, the $0–$1M and $1M–$3M ranges were the real engines of activity, with 27 new listings against 79 contracts in the under‑$1M band and 20 new listings against 87 contracts between $1M and $3M. That imbalance—many more deals than new properties- tells a story of a middle market that remains deep and engaged, even as year‑end distractions mount. Above $3M, the numbers thin but do not disappear: 30 contracts between $3M and $5M, nine between $5M and $10M, a couple between $10M and $20M, and one lone new listing above $20M with no contracts at that level for the week, it is precisely what you would expect as Manhattan trades holiday parties for open houses.
Condo Price Per Square Foot: Understanding Value by Segment
Price per square foot fills in the fine print. Across these core neighborhoods, sub‑$1M condo resales are trading around $1,100–$1,180 per square foot; between $1M and $3M, that rises to roughly $1,550–$1,750, and in the $3M–$5M range, it holds just above $1,800 per square foot. Step into the $5M–$10M tier, and you are paying in the mid‑$2,200s per foot. That ladder is remarkably consistent: with each rung up the price spectrum, buyers are paying not just for more space but for better views, stronger amenities, coveted corners of the city, and sometimes, sheer rarity.
Manhattan Luxury Market: Insights from the Olshan Report
At the very top of the market, the Olshan Report captured the natural December exhale. Twenty‑one contracts were signed at $4M and above, 12 fewer than the previous week as Christmas and New Year’s approached. Yet that quieter week sits atop one of the strongest luxury years we have seen in nearly two decades. For 2025, Manhattan logged 1,436 luxury contracts at $4M+, an 11% increase over 2024, with total asking-price volume of about $11.5 billion, second only to the extraordinary rebound year of 2021. Average luxury asking prices actually slipped roughly 4% from the prior year, and that modest recalibration appears to have been the key that unlocked more deals. Price realism, not bravado, is what moved the high‑end market forward.
How Luxury Buyers Are Really Thinking
Condos continued to dominate luxury sales, outselling co‑ops more than three to one, just as they have consistently since 2018. Roughly half of those luxury condos were sponsor units, reflecting a clear appetite for new construction, flexible ownership structures, and rich amenity packages. Even the trophy segment, $10M and above, posted its second‑best year since tracking began in 2006, only overshadowed by 2021’s extraordinary spike. It is difficult to reconcile those numbers with the drumbeat of negative headlines about tariffs, stubborn mortgage rates, foreign wars, and mayoral politics, but that is the nature of Manhattan: it absorbs noise and keeps transacting.
Macro Backdrop: Tariffs, AI Investment, and Mortgage Rates
All of this played out against a macro backdrop that has been anything but calm. As Jonathan Miller observed, 2025 was a roller coaster for housing nationally: tariffs (“Liberation Day”) introduced real economic weakness, while massive AI and data‑center investment kept headline growth afloat. Strip out that AI spend, and the broader economy barely grew. Yet consumer spending stayed surprisingly strong, increasingly driven by affluent households, with the top 10% now responsible for roughly half of all U.S. consumption. Those are the same households that anchor Manhattan’s buyer pool. As tariffs continue to weigh on growth into 2026, mortgage rates are expected to drift lower, which is helpful for housing but also a reminder that rate relief may be arriving hand in hand with a softer economy.
What This Means for Manhattan Buyers in 2026
So, what does the week of December 15th really tell a buyer or seller who is looking ahead to 2026? For buyers, it means you are walking into a rational market, not an euphoric one. Demand in the key $0–$3M range is tangible and measurable, price‑per‑foot ladders are coherent, and even in late December, properties that are correctly priced continue to find new owners. You may not be able to “steal” a great apartment, but you can indeed find one at a price that reflects today’s environment rather than yesterday’s peak.
Strategy for Manhattan Sellers Heading Into the New Year
For sellers, this week is a gentle but firm reminder that the market is not waiting for aspirational asks to catch up with reality. The strongest results are going to those who price into the lane where contracts are actually happening, in other words, who meet buyers where they are. The luxury data reinforces this: a slight adjustment in average asking prices helped deliver one of the best luxury years on record. Value is not about giving it away; it is about aligning with a well‑informed, highly analytical buyer base that still wants to own in Manhattan.
As the city wrapped gifts and booked flights, the market did what it often does best: it quietly sorted, priced, and matched people with homes. For 2026, that is not a bad place to start.
