The luxury apartment sales market in Manhattan appears to be stabilizing a bit, according to Third Quarter 2010 report from major brokerages.

"After three consecutive quarters of double digit declines in year over year inventory levels, the pace of the declines appears to be easing," proclaiming the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman, which was prepared by Miller Samuel Inc.

"There were 8,123 listings at the end of the third quarter, 3.2 percent less than the 8,380 listings in the prior year quarter and essentially unchanged from the 8,157 listings in the prior quarter. There were 2,661 sales in the third quarter, 19.3 percent above 2,230 sales in the prior year quarter, but 3.4 percent less than the 2,756 sales in the prior year quarter. The same period a year ago had represented a sharp increase in activity after the post-Lehman lull in the first half of 2009 buoyed by a surging stock market," the report said.

"Given the shift to 2-bedroom apartments and drop in studio sales, the overall price indicators were skewed higher. As a result, individual housing prices would be best characterized as stable," the report, which included the chart at the right, added.

The Halstead Property report said that "Manhattan apartment prices continued to rise during the third quarter, reaching their highest levels since the first quarter of 2009," adding that "At 1,423,378, the average apartment price was 12 percent higher than a year ago" and that "the median price rose 14 percent from 2009's third quarter, reaching $890,000."

According to Pamela Liebman, chief executive officer of the Corcoran Group, the market has "returned to typical seasonal ebbs and flows. "Last year at this time," she said in her company's report, "pent-up demand from three quarters of low sales and lower pricing created an energetic buyers market. For Third Quarter 2010, we saw a 5 percent decrease in the number of market-wide transactions from a year ago and a 19 percent decrease from Second Quarter 2010."

"Buyers," she continued, "are purchasing larger apartments with more bedrooms" and "with mortgage rates at their lowest levels in over thirty years, buyers are able to afford more expensive apartments for less money."

"East Side resale condos increased 28 percent in median price and 13 percent in average price per square foot from Third Quarter 2009 whereas resale co-ops increased 24 percent in median price and 9 percent in average price per square foot over the same time period," according to the Corcoran report.

"While absorption has increased by 50 percent since its trough in the Fourth Quarter of 2008, it has expectedly slowed during the summer months. The number of new listings decreased 28 percent from last quarter, as there were approximately 4,400 listings added to the market during Third Quarter 2010 compared to approximately 6,150 new listings in the Second Quarter 2010. This number does not include 'shadow,' or unlisted, and unsold, new development units," the Corcoran Group report said.

The Brown Harris Stevens report noted that "apartments in new developments sold for an average of $1,112 per square foot, 5 percent less than a year ago," adding that "a decline in the number of luxury developments on the market was a major factor in this change."

Loft prices averaged $1,077 per square foot in the Third Quarter, the report said, "up 12 percent from the third quarter of 2009."

"Units that sold in the Third Quarter spent an average of 97 days on the market, 24 percent less time than a year ago. This was the lowest level for time on the market since the third quarter of 2008. Sellers received 95.9 percent of their last asking price, up from 95.1 percent in 2009's third quarter," the study found.