Prices for Manhattan cooperative and condominium apartments at the end of the fourth quarter last year was $1,432,787, 8 percent higher than a year ago and the sixth straight quarter that the average price has risen, according to a year-end report by Halstead Property.

"While the number of recorded transactions fell 25 percent from a year ago, the fourth quarter of 2009 was uncharacteristically busy due to the pent-up demand after the collapse of Lehman Brothers had frozen the market earlier that year, the study found.

"The average co-op price continued to rise sharply, as more buyers favored larger apartments compared to a year ago," it continued, noting that "the overall average co-op price [was up 17 percent from 2009's fourth quarter to $1,158,333.

"Condominium prices averaged $1,751,219 during the fourth quarter, 1 percent higher than a year ago," it added.

"2010 has been an encouraging year in Manhattan real estate, which experienced a 20 percent boost in sales transactions compared to full-year 2009, even with a 17 percent decrease in sales transactions in Fourth Quarter 2010 compared to the same quarter in 2009, "declared Pamela Liebman, chief executive officer of The Corcoran Group.

"Following normal seasonality, market-wide Fourth Quarter sales were 11 percent lower than Third Quarter 2010. In Fourth Quarter 2010, mortgage rates remained at very attractive levels with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hitting a record low in November," she said.

On the West Side, the Corcoran report indicated that "resale co-ops increased 13 percent in median price from a year ago while average price per square foot increased10 percent due to a higher number of three-plus bedroom residences trading.

On the East Side, it continued, larger residences experienced significant price gains from a year ago, and Third Quarter 2010. "The median price for three-bedroom resale coopers increased 51 percent from last year while three-plus bedroom condos increased 7 percent."

"There are 8,829 units currently listed on the market, representing a 4 percent decrease from last quarter and an almost 30 percent decrease from the First Quarter 2009, when inventory reached its peak....Inventory figures do not include 'shadow,' or unlisted and unsold, new development units," the report said.

The Prudential Douglas Elliman report, which was prepared by Miller Samuel Inc., said that "there were 2,295 sales in the fourth quarter, 7.2 percent below 2,473 sales in the same period last year and 13.8 percent below the 2,661 sales of the prior quarter. However, the comparison of the same period last year is a comparison to a quarter that represented the largest fourth quarter share of sales activity in more than 20 years. When comparing the 13.8 percent decline in sales from the third to the fourth quarter, the change exceeded the 20-year 7.5 percent average decline. Fourth quarter listing inventory increased 5.6 percent to 7,232 tom 6,851 in the prior year quarter - the same quarter that had the record surge in sales that worked off excess inventory during that period. The fourth quarter inventory total was 11 percent below 8,123 in the prior quarter. The decline was greater than the 3.4 percent average decline over the past decade, suggesting the new year will begin with a modest level of inventory entering into one of the seasonally highest sales periods of the year."

"The number of days between the change in the list price, if any, and contract date - known as days on market - fell sharply to 125 days from a record 204 days in the same period last year. The current level was unchanged from the prior quarter and consistent with the 126 days on market average of the past 15 years. Similarly, the percentage difference between the listing price at time of contract and the contract price- the listing discount - fell sharply to 8 percent from its 15-year high of 12.8 percent in the prior year quarter," the Prudential study noted.

The chart at the left is from the Prudential Douglas Elliman report.