Manhattan Apartment Prices Fall as Finance Jobs Lost

Manhattan apartment prices fell for a third consecutive quarter as Wall Street job losses drained demand and the decline in co-op and condominium values reached 21 percent since the market peak.

The median price slid 10 percent to $810,000 in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said today. The median price hit $1.03 million at the top of the market in 2008. The number of sales jumped 8.4 percent to 2,473 in the three months ended Dec. 31.

Values continued to fall across apartments of all sizes as New York City recorded 10 percent unemployment in November. Fallout from the recession and credit crisis that cost more than 184,000 finance jobs in the Americas is still hurting New York. The city lost 25,200 finance jobs in the 12 months ending Nov. 30, the state Labor Department said Dec. 17. (more)