How Soho and Little Italy Are Holding up in a Slowing Housing Market

SOHO, MANHATTAN — The Manhattan housing market showed signs of slowing down its frenzied growth of the past three years in July, according to new monthly data from StreetEasy.

Soho's median asking price increased 3.3 percent from last year to around $3.7 million, and its median asking rent also increased 10.2 percent from last year to $4,850. The tipping point in Soho decreased 15.2 percent to 25 years.

StreetEasy didn't compile data from Little Italy on median asking price, but it found that the median asking rent in the neighborhood rose 9.4 percent from last year to $3,500. The tipping point in Little Italy in July was 8.3 years, a whopping 73.3 percent decrease from last year.

The tipping point of a neighborhood is the number of years you'd have to spend in a home for it to be worth buying instead of renting.

The Manhattan housing market in general is becoming more of a buyer's market as the rise in prices steadies after the past few years of prices rising at lightning speed. According to StreetEasy, the growth of housing prices slowed in July, and houses spent substantially longer on the market than they did last year.

"Though prices are still climbing, sellers will need to continue to level expectations amid a less competitive market, while buyers have the opportunity to negotiate asking prices down even further amid slowing price growth and homes spending more time on the market," said StreetEasy's analysis of the data.

Manhattan's median resale price was $994,458 in July, a 2 percent increase since July 2015, and the slowest pace of growth since April 2012. Homes in Manhattan sold in a median of 62 days, which was up 13 days from last year. And while in July of 2015, Manhattan sellers received a median of 100 percent of their asking price, this year they received just 97.7 percent of the asking price.

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