The last decade in Manhattan’s luxury housing market saw prices traverse an uneven W shape—almost fully rebounding from the 2016 condo boom and pandemic softening by the end of 2025.
At the end of last year, the median price for a luxury home in Manhattan—defined as the top 10% of the market—was $6.395 million, down 3.5% from 2016, but up more than 6% from 2024, according to a report from Douglas Elliman released Thursday. If the city’s Wall Street-fueled housing boom continues, Manhattan’s luxury home prices could be headed toward new heights in the near future.
By contrast, the borough’s broader housing market hit a median sales price of $1.175 million, up 6.5% from 2016, according to the data compiled by Jonathan Miller of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, author of the report.
Interestingly, the 1,143 luxury sales last year marked a 15.4% jump from 2024 but was nearly identical to 1,146 deals closed in 2016.
Of course, the pandemic and its aftermath shaped the trajectory of the housing market in the last decade via outmigration, the work-from-home hangover and rising mortgage rates—causing a dramatic dip in prices and volume in the early 2020s, followed by a fairly rapid resurgence.
The luxury sector followed a similar pattern but fell from a larger height in 2020 and then rebounded faster because it’s less reliant on financing.
The 2016 peak was largely driven by new development properties that skewed the market with higher pricing and larger units. Over the decade, the market absorbed the excess inventory while few new towers were added, leading to an inventory crunch and climbing prices at the high end.
In Downtown Manhattan, for example, condo prices came down 12.4% from their 2016 peak of $2.25 million, but co-op prices were up more than 6%, the report said.
Drilling further into the pockets of Manhattan, the outcomes varied. The median price for a Greenwich Village condo fell by nearly half over the decade to $2.3 million, while rising 5.5% in SoHo and Tribeca. In Chelsea, condos and co-ops prices fell. On the East Side of Manhattan, Upper East Side condos were up 25.1% and Carnegie Hill condos were down 35.1%.
Luxury co-op prices increased broadly, especially in Carnegie Hill—where many of the city’s storied and exclusive buildings are located—but fell in Chelsea and Midtown West.