The top cleared while the middle stalled: Manhattan signed 246 contracts, down 4% year-over-year, with the $15M to $25M range recording zero and above $25M recording four. Brooklyn signed 121, down 8%, with four contracts above $5M against none last year.

The In-Between

A ninth consecutive week of annual declines, with the year still ahead: 246 contracts, down 4% year-over-year and 1% from the prior week. That is the longest such run since 2022, dating to Labor Day. Year-to-date contracts hold 2.7% above 2025.

New development posted its narrowest annual drop in seven weeks: 30 contracts, up from 11 the prior week and down 9% year-over-year. That makes a seventeenth consecutive week of annual declines in sponsor sales, one better week inside a four-month slide.

Resale condos and co-ops moved in opposite directions: condo resales rose 13% annually to 86 contracts while co-op resales fell 13% to 125. Together they are 86% of the borough’s contracts. Townhouses signed 5 against 4 a year ago.

The luxury market skipped a floor: contracts between $15M and $25M came in at zero against five in the same week last year, while above $25M recorded four against none. Below that, $3M to $5M fell 31% to 20 contracts, while $1M to $3M rose 14% to 98 and $5M to $15M rose 19% to 31. Sales above $5M reached 35, up 13%, and twenty-nine weeks after the pied-à-terre tax announcement that segment trails 2025 by 2%. The week’s highest-priced contract was a 30th and 31st floor duplex at the Ritz-Carlton Residences on Central Park South, asking $70M (10,875 square feet, $6,437 PSF), the highest-priced Midtown contract of the year.

Downtown led and Upper Manhattan gave back its gains: Downtown signed 76 contracts, up 7% annually, and the Financial District rose 50% to 15. The Upper West Side held at 50, up 4%. Against that, the Upper East Side fell 19% to 46, Midtown slipped to 39 from 40, and Upper Manhattan fell 33% to 20.

Two numbers from opposite ends of the city said the same thing this week. In Manhattan, the $15M to $25M range recorded zero contracts while above $25M recorded four. In Brooklyn, above $5M recorded four against none last year, while condo and co-op contracts above $1M fell 45%.

The easy read is that the top is fine and everyone else is waiting. That isn’t it. Plenty of expensive apartments went nowhere this week. Manhattan’s $3M to $5M range fell 31%. Brooklyn’s fell 36%. Those are not entry-level buyers.

What separates the ranges that moved from the ranges that didn’t isn’t money. It’s whether another one is coming.

A $4M two-bedroom in a 200-unit condominium is a category, not an object. Pass on it and something close enough appears next month, possibly at a better number. Waiting costs that buyer nothing. So when the market feels unsettled, waiting is free and they take it. Multiply that by every buyer in the range and the range goes quiet, not because anyone lost the ability to buy, but because nobody lost anything by pausing.

A 10,875 square foot duplex on Central Park South is not a category. Neither is a 4,060 square foot Greek Revival on Clinton Street. There is no second one arriving next month at a better price. For that buyer, waiting is not free, it costs the asset. So they sign, and they sign in a week when everything around them is flat.

That is the question worth asking about anything you own. Not what it’s worth, but how many things like it a buyer can choose from today. If the answer is twelve, your buyer has no reason to hurry and your price is doing all the work. If the answer is one, your buyer has every reason to hurry and your patience is doing the work.

One caution on the counts: above $25M in Manhattan and above $5M in Brooklyn, we are talking about a handful of contracts, and a handful can reverse next week. The substitution logic is the durable part. This week’s numbers are evidence for it, not proof of it.

Holding firm works when the buyer can’t substitute. Cutting price works when they can. Find out which one you’re holding.

Know someone sitting on a one-of-a-kind property, waiting for a better market? Forward this to them with one line: the question isn’t what it’s worth, it’s how many things like it a buyer can choose from.

Brooklyn fell with Manhattan, and has now fallen in ten of the past sixteen weeks: 121 contracts, down 8% year-over-year and 3% from the prior week. The year still runs 3% ahead of 2025.

New development and resale apartments both retreated while houses grew: new development signed 15 contracts against 21 a year ago, down 29%. Resale condos posted the borough’s steepest decline at 23, down 45%, and co-ops 23, down 23%. Against that, single-family houses reached 20 against 9 last year and two-to-four-family townhouses 40 against 30.

Five of seven price ranges fell: $750K to $1M was the only range below $5M to gain, up 18% to 26 contracts. Above $5M signed four against none a year ago. The steepest declines were $3M to $5M, down 36% to 7, and under $500K, down 33% to 12. The split shows up clearly above $1M: house and townhouse contracts rose 50% to 42 while condo and co-op contracts fell 45% to 17.

Two submarkets carried the borough: South Brooklyn signed 47 contracts, up 31% annually and 39% of everything in Brooklyn, and Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Bushwick added 24, up 14%. Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Greenwood Heights rose 71% to 12. Against that, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights fell to 6 from 16, Park Slope and Gowanus fell 53% to 8, and Williamsburg and Greenpoint fell 50% to 8.

Large units drove the week: four-plus bedrooms reached 48 contracts, up 66% annually, while two-bedrooms fell 40% to 25 and three-bedrooms 37% to 19. One-bedrooms held near level at 24. The most expensive contract was 247 Clinton Street, a Greek Revival-Italianate brick multi-family of 4,060 square feet, last asking $8.3M ($2,044 PSF).