UES Townhouse Market Hurting After Rough End To 2018: Study

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The townhouse market on the Upper East Side took a big hit in the second half of 2018 amid a Manhattan-wide decline in sales, according to a new report from reatly firm Stribling.

Sales on the Upper East Side were down 48 percent in the last six months of 2018 compared to the year before, according to Stribling's report. With just 11 houses sold, the volume of sales for the neighborhood totaled $147.8 million, according to the report.

The drop in sales occurred despite the fact that the number of townhouses listed for sale in the second half of 2018 was far greater than in the second half of 2017. With 91 homes on the market, the neighborhood's inventory increased by 60 percent, according to the Stribling report.

Homes also lingered on the Upper East Side market for longer periods of time in 2018. The average number of days on the market for neighborhood townhouses rose 13 percent to 238 days.

The downward trend, while particularly bad on the Upper East Side, hit almost the entirety of Manhattan.

"The townhouse market in Manhattan continued to struggle in the second half of 2018,"Garrett Derderian, director of data & reporting at Stribling, said in a statement. "Each market, with the exception of Downtown Manhattan, saw a reduction in sales over the same period last year."

For all the optimists out there, it's worth noting that the median sales price for Upper East Side townhouses rose 59 percent year over year and the average price per square foot jumped 12 percent. The numbers were aided by two sales exceeding $30 million in value, according to a press release.

The Upper East Side also remained king in terms of average sales price at $13.4 million, exceeding the market-wide average of $5 million and the Upper West Side average of $9.1 million.

Check out the full Stribling report here.

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