By: Guthrie Garvin, Massey Knakal Realty Services
Bound on the west by Central Park and on the east by the East River, the Upper East Side has traditionally fallen between 59th Street on the south and 96th Street on the north. While the core of the market was once the narrow sliver located to the west of Third Avenue, the Upper East Side’s high property values have been gradually expanding eastwards towards the river, with higher prices becoming the norm. Given the perceived stability of the Upper East Side, one might assume investors to expect limited price-appreciation. However, in some metrics, the Upper East Side has outpaced the overall Manhattan market over the past five years.
For the period from 2009 through the first quarter of 2014, Manhattan saw almost $110 billion in sales activity (excluding residential condos and co-ops), approximately 4.1 percent of which came from the Upper East Side. Sales on the Upper East Side are distributed much differently than in the rest of the Manhattan. 1-4 family property sales are much more prevalent there than anywhere else in Manhattan and accounted for 37 percent of 1-4 family dollar volume sold. Additionally, the low turnover rate on investment grade product on the Upper East Side has led to pent up demand and an increase in pricing for these highly sought after asset classes - over the last five years the average price per transaction on the Upper East Side was $23.5 million consisting of 192 transactions (218 buildings). Thus far in 2014, the average price per transaction on the Upper East Side is up 21 percent over its five year average equating to $28.4 million per transaction with 12 transactions closed.
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Neighborhoods: Upper East Side