The In-Between

Hi {{ First Name | Scooper }}! The market moves every day, but most coverage shows up monthly. This is your weekly read on what actually moved: one week of Manhattan and Brooklyn contracts, distilled to what matters.

Five straight weeks of annual declines, the longest streak this year: 206 contracts, down 10% year-over-year even as volume rose 4% from the prior week. Every week since Labor Day has come in under last year. Year-to-date the market is still 1.9% ahead, which tells you how much of this is seasonal catch-down rather than collapse.

The top of the market gave back everything it gained last week: $5M+ fell to 15 contracts, down 38% annually — nine fewer deals — with the $5M to $15M range off 43%. Twenty-five weeks after the pied-à-terre tax announcement, $5M+ sales now trail 2025 by 4%. A week ago that gap was 1%. More on why that swing is smaller than it looks below.

New development’s decline streak reached thirteen weeks: 22 contracts, down 35% annually, with ten of those thirteen weeks off more than 20% — the longest sponsor drought since April 2025. Three straight months of losing to resale isn’t a soft patch, it’s a repricing that hasn’t finished.

The submarket map rearranged itself in seven days: Midtown posted the borough’s worst print at 28 contracts, down 48% annually. Financial District & BPC fell to 3 contracts from 12 the week before. Downtown held at 71 (+9% annually) and the Upper East Side at 48 (+4%). Submarket counts this small move on a handful of deals — read the direction, not the percentage.

Co-ops carried the borough: 116 contracts, more than half of everything signed in Manhattan, down just 9% annually against resale condos’ 63. Volume concentrated at the bottom — 92 contracts under $1M and 79 one-bedrooms, both up double digits week-over-week. The week’s highest-priced contract was the penthouse at 1110 Park Avenue asking $24.95M ($3,564 PSF), 45% above its 2019 sponsor closing.

Last week the data said Manhattan’s luxury market was the only price range still growing. This week it’s down 38%.

Before reading that as a collapse, consider what these weekly numbers actually measure. The Manhattan report carries a line most readers skip: figures reflect the date a sale is reported, not the date it was signed, and some were signed before the report week.

At the top of the market that matters more than anywhere else, because the counts are tiny. The $5M+ segment went from 19 contracts to 15. Four deals. At that size, a lag in paperwork and a genuine shift in demand produce the same number, and nothing in a one-week print tells you which one you’re looking at.

Brooklyn makes the point from the other direction. Sales under $1M were down 15% annually a week ago and roughly flat this week, but inside that, under $500K rose 20%, $500K to $750K rose 43%, and $750K to $1M fell 29%. Three adjacent price ranges, three directions, on counts of twenty.

What survives this problem is duration. Manhattan has posted an annual decline every week since Labor Day, five straight, the longest streak this year. New development has fallen thirteen weeks running. A streak that long can’t be explained by filing delays. A single 38% can.

Read the streak, not the week. When a buyer tells you the luxury market fell 38%, they’re quoting a sample of fifteen. If you want to know which trend your building is actually in, let’s look at it together.

Brooklyn gained while Manhattan fell: 123 contracts, up 2% annually and 21% from the prior week, with the year still running 4% ahead of 2025. Five of eight submarkets posted annual growth — the inverse of Manhattan’s week, and the inverse of Brooklyn’s own week before.

Co-ops and single-family houses were the only product types to gain annually: resale co-ops jumped to 36 contracts (+64%) and single-family townhouses to 23 (+109%). Two- to four-family houses fell to 22, down 41% — the same category that led the borough seven days earlier. Treat both swings as sample size, not as a change in what investors want.

The entry level came back, but not evenly: under $500K rose 20% annually and $500K to $750K rose 43%, the strongest segment in the borough — while $750K to $1M fell 29%. Nothing above $2M posted an annual gain. Three adjacent price ranges moving three different directions is a sign of thin counts, not a clean trend.

South of Prospect Park doubled: Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights, Ditmas, Flatbush and PPS reached 14 contracts from 7 last year, driven by co-op resales and single-family houses. South Brooklyn signed 47, over a third of the borough and up 9% annually. The Brooklyn Heights–Cobble Hill–Dumbo–Downtown corridor rose 27%. Williamsburg and Greenpoint fell hardest at 10 contracts, down 44%.

Two- and three-bedrooms drove the week: 39 two-bedrooms (+26% annually) and 31 three-bedrooms (+35%), while four-plus bedrooms fell 22% and studios halved to 5. The most expensive deal was 96 Franklin Street, a Greenpoint single-family with a backyard and roof deck, 4,346 square feet, last asking $6M ($1,381 PSF).