One in three Manhattan condos sold for a loss over the last year, according to a new report.

The brokerage Brown Harris Stevens recently analyzed more than 2,500 Manhattan condo sales. The findings, reported by the Real Deal, revealed stark losses among one segment of buyers.

The firm counted Manhattan condo resales between July 2024 and July 2025, and found that pads purchased over the last decade fared the worst when it came to resale. 

More than half of condos purchased between 2016 and 2020 saw losses. Cavan for Adobe – stock.adobe.com

More than half of condos purchased between 2016 and 2020 saw losses. ChiccoDodiFC – stock.adobe.com

Price corrections, fluctuating mortgage rates and economic uncertainty over the last 10 years have come back to haunt mid-2010s condo buyers.

Of the surveyed condos initially purchased between 2016 and 2020, more than half saw losses.

The 700 surveyed sellers who snagged their condos before 2010, however, largely saw their homes appreciate in value. 

Condo sellers finding it difficult to make returns on their relatively recent purchases have several culprits to blame.

The years between 2015 and 2024 were a lackluster decade for Manhattan real estate. Apartment prices rose less than 10% during that time, according to a Miller Samuel report for Douglas Elliman. 

Buyers in 2016 rushed to buy condos as prices skyrocketed. stockelements – stock.adobe.com

There was a dizzying construction period in the last decade. Cavan – stock.adobe.com

Experts point to a 2016 condo boom as part of the present stagnation. Buyers at the time rushed in to snap up condos before prices ballooned. The year saw peak prices within the luxury market, in particular. Anxious buyers amid this boom of opportunity spent big — perhaps too big before prices corrected. 

The average price per square foot between 2015 and 2024 fell by 3.8%.

Luxury buyers were relatively unscathed by economic trends. Only 20% of the surveyed sales over $10 million went at a loss. 

But even Manhattan’s wealthiest have experienced pain points over the last decade. 

The Real Deal cited unwelcome changes in the city’s incentives for wealthy buyers, including a 2017 cap on state and local tax deductions, as well as the updated city’s mansion tax passed in 2019.

The number of Big Apple millionaires has declined since 2010. Askanioff – stock.adobe.com

The tides could be turning on the condo market. Yuriy T – stock.adobe.com

New York City has also lost a small hoard of its millionaires 2010, according to the outlet. The city’s percentage of millionaires dropped from 12.7% to 8.7%, according to a Citizen’s Budget Commission report. A particular flight to sunny, low-tax Florida was documented between 2018 and 2022, ramping up especially in the COVID years.

Generous mortgage rates also became a thing of the past during the period Brown Harris Steven analyzed. 

Average 30-year mortgage rates back in 2016 hovered around 3.6%, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. Those reached incredible lows during 2020 and 2021. Painful spikes starting in 2022 followed, slowing down the market and scaring off some condo buyers. 

The tides could be turning on the Manhattan condo market’s relatively calm waters, however. Sales increased last year, despite elevated mortgage rates and decreased inventory. Predictions of easing prices and falling mortgage rates ahead could give a much-needed confidence boost to local homeowners looking to sell.