![\"Why](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/108174464-1753101509390-gettyimages-2225368289-AA_21072025_2338165.jpeg\")
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From July 2024 to July 2025, 1 in 3 condos sold in Manhattan sold at a loss, according to luxury real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens. Experts say this dynamic is somewhat typical in a city with high selling fees and high tax rates.<\/p>\n
What is unusual is the borough’s wavering property values over the past decade. In November 2015, 1 square foot of space in Manhattan cost $1,562; by fall 2025, prices had fallen to $1,108 per square foot, according to Redfin data<\/a>. <\/p>\n Manhattan condo and co-op values took a large swing down amid the Fed’s tightening<\/a> of the U.S. economy from 2022 to 2024. A dearth of foreign buyers further dampened demand. Experts point to shifts in foreign exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and currencies such as the euro. <\/p>\n “I think there’s probably more upside over the next 10 years than the last 10 years,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO and founder of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal and consulting firm. <\/p>\n Experts say many first-time buyers are shut out of this high-end market. “I’m seeing more people in their early 30s, and they’re getting a little bit of help from their parents,” said Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens. “They’re New Yorkers who are going from uptown to downtown, empty nesters, … younger families, … not so much international,” she said in an interview with CNBC’s Robert Frank.<\/p>\n “That’s actually why rents went up so much, because people couldn’t afford to buy,” said Pierre Debbas, a real estate lawyer in the New York metro region. <\/p>\n The median rent in Manhattan today is $4,973, according to rental website Zumper, a 10% increase from the year prior. A buyer purchasing the median condo in Manhattan \u2014 which sells for $1,650,000, according to data from Miller Samuel<\/a> \u2014 with a 20% down payment and a 6.25% mortgage could face monthly principal and interest payments north of $8,000.<\/p>\n As a result, even wealthy New Yorkers are choosing to rent.<\/p>\n New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani campaigned on affordability issues, gaining national attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n His platform called for higher taxes on the rich and a rent freeze for approximately 1 million rent-stabilized units throughout the city. Experts say this could raise the rents on an estimated 1.2 million market-rate units in the coming years. <\/p>\n “What that’s going to cause landlords to do is to push expenses on the buildings they control that have more open-market units,” said Miller.<\/p>\n