Hot Market: New York Luxury Homes

New York luxury-home prices rose 19 percent last year, beating cities around the world, as the U.S. economic recovery gathered pace and a growing number of upscale projects drew overseas buyers.  U.S. cities made up four of the top 10 spots globally, with Aspen, Colorado ranked second, San Francisco in sixth and Los Angeles 10th, broker Knight Frank LLP said in a report.

The biggest drops were in Buenos Aires and the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, where values fell 15 percent.  Entrepreneurs are “very interested in the opportunity in New York because the economic context is so much more positive than the European context” , said Liam Bailey, head of research at Knight Frank in London. “In the last 18 months you’ve seen quite a few new projects coming into the market in New York that’s helped pull in new buyers”.

The record for New York’s most expensive residential sale was set in December with the closing of a penthouse at Extell Development Co.’s One57 for $100.5 million. Chetrit Group, a builder that is converting the New York headquarters of Sony Corp. into luxury condos, will ask $150 million for a triplex apartment in the building. 

This year, 2,386 newly built luxury condos will be listed for sale in Manhattan, the most on record, according to data compiled by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. The brokerage defines luxury as units priced at more than $2,300 a square foot. For $1 million, you could buy about 34 square meters of space in a luxury home in New York, compared with 21 square meters in London and 17 square meters in Monaco, according to the report.