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 March, 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 March
- The borough with the most transaction in March was Queens with approximately 37% of the total transactions after commercial transactions were excluded. The runner-up borough was Manhattan with around 28% of the total transactions. Brooklyn came in on a third with 25% while the Bronx ended up with around 9%.
- Out of the 37% of transactions made in Queens, the average unit in the borough of Queens went for $653,660, ranking Queens as the borough with the third cheapest average closing price.
- The borough of Manhattan had the highest average closing price with the average unit going for a total of $2,037,060.
- Brooklyn came in with the second highest average closing price in the four boroughs, with an average closing price of $974,729.
- The borough with the cheapest average closing price for the month of March was the Bronx, with an average closing price of $503,339.
Celebrity transactions in March
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 March’s celebrity transactions that we could track down.
BUYS
– Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda buys yet another rental unit at 140 Cabrini Boulevard, Manhattan, NY, on 3/14/2018. This makes the third rental unit purchased by Miranda at this address this year. The purchase was for $675,000.
– Previous One Direction member Zayn Malik purchases a Soho penthouse for $10,691,600 on March 13th under the LLC Drop Zed Properties Nyc Llc.
SELLS
– Harvey Weinstein’s townhouse sold for $25,629,800 in March to Cheget Llc, clocking in as one of the most expensive transactions in March. Harvey Weinstein sold the townhouse through the same LLC he purchased it under, Thirban Realty Holdings Llc.
– Restaurateur Keith Mcnally finally sold his Greenwich Village Townhouse for $10,275,000, for almost $3.3M less than the original asking price. Keith Mcnally chose to use his own name when selling his property.
– Author Jonathan Safran-Foer sold his Brooklyn townhouse for $7,600,000 under the LLC Strong Kane Llc in early March. The author is known for his novels “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”.
An overview of the total transactions made in March
The table below shows the total count of transactions in March 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 March and ranks the transactions by the most expensive. We limited the transactions listed below to those of the cost of $10,000 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 benefitial 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.
