New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. to rent in so one can only imagine the price tags of the units actually for sale. Investing in real estate in New York City can be expensive, but nevertheless, an investment if NYC is the city where you see yourself living for the rest of your life. With more than 8.5 million people residing, across the five boroughs, there are plentiful of housing and investment opportunities for those looking to purchase real estate. This monthly report has its focus on the previous transactions made in April, showing the most expensive transactions (commercial transactions excluded), celebrity transactions, and some statistics to go along with it. The data for the report is provided by ACRIS.
Some information about ACRIS
With data publicly available by ACRIS (ACRIS being the Automated City Register Information System) the public can search property records and view documents for Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, and Brooklyn from 1966 to the present. While RealtyHop has incorporated a feature that allows users of the site to conduct their own searches for buy/sell events by individuals, organizations, or property addresses, a report showing the number of transactions made in the past month as well as some insight to what properties go for, in which borough, has been provided in the report.
A brief look at the month of April
Total transactions statistics:
- The borough with the most transactions in April, similar to March, was again Queens. The borough ended up with approximately 36% of the total transactions, 1 percent less than for March. That was after obvious commercial, unknown, and transactions under $100,000 were excluded.
- The runner-up was again Manhattan. For April, Manhattan had around 30 percent of the total transactions, an increase of 2 percent from the previous month.
Brooklyn again placed third with, again, with approximately 25% of this month’s transactions while the Bronx ended up with the same number as last month as well, 9%.
Median closing price per borough:
- The borough of Manhattan, not surprisingly, had yet again the highest closing price with the median closing price coming in at $1,150,000. Manhattan saw several high transactions this month, units sold at 432 Park Avenue (the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere) and the sale of Bruce Willis’ apartment for $50 million are just a couple of examples.
- Out of the 36% of transactions made in Queens, the median closing price for the borough was $539,836, less than half of the median closing price of Manhattan.
- Brooklyn’s median closing price for the month of April ended up to be $767,000, making Brooklyn the borough with the second highest median closing price for the month of April.
- The Bronx saw the cheapest median closing price for the past month, with a median closing price of $391,000.
Celebrity transactions in April
As a celebrity or a known public figure, purchasing real estate is usually done more privately. Since home purchases are public, most public figures end up purchasing real estate properties through for example an LLC or a trust. This way, the purchase isn’t directly in their name of and the address of the newly purchased property remains private, for a while. However, costly transactions usually don’t go unnoticed. Here are a few of April’s celebrity transactions that we could track down.
BUYS
-Andrew Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s son bought an apartment on fifth avenue for $21,000,000 on 4/13/18. The apartment belonged to socialite Georgette Mosbacher for 25 years.
-Doug Band, Bill Clinton’s former advisor purchased David Rockefeller’s townhouse in early April, getting the townhouse for $12.5 less than asking price. Doug Band bought the townhouse for $20,000,000 under the LLC 146 East 65 Llc.
SELLS
– Sting sold his Upper West Side apartment to the LLC 15 Cpw Ph Llc for $50,000,000 on 4/5/2018. While the apartment sold for $6 less than the asking price, Sting certainly made a profit considering he bought the place in 2008 for $27 million. Sting made the transaction under his real name, Gordon Sumner.
– Another big celebrity transaction this month was Bruce Willis. Willis and his wife bought the Central Park West apartment back in 2015 and sold it April 24 for the exact asking price of $17,750,000.
– For $13.2 million, actor and comedian Mike Myers sold his Soho penthouse on April 25 under the trust Perry Trust, Michael Hecht As Trustee.
An overview of the total transactions made in April
The table below shows the total transactions in April for the boroughs Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Obvious commercial transactions have been removed from the table (as well as any transactions that didn’t clearly show if it was a commercial transaction or not). The data in the table is provided by ACRIS for the month of April and ranks the transactions by the most expensive. We limited the transactions listed below to those of the cost of $100,000 and above. To search for transactions by borough, please refer to using the search field.
As the table shows, there are a lot of purchases made through LLC’s and Ltd’s. While it is not uncommon to see public figures purchasing properties through LLC’s to keep their identity private, it is also not uncommon to see a lot of purchases under Ltd’s. For those investing in real estate, making the purchase through a company is highly beneficial for tax purposes.
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With data from ACRIS, RealtyHop is able to disclose the total number of transactions as well as the boroughs with the most transactions in the past month. We here at RealtyHop look for insight into the real estate market to provide buyers with as much information as possible so they can make an informed buying decision.
