The for-sale apartment market in Manhattan softened significantly in the first quarter of 2009, according to reports issued today by several brokerage concerns.

Apartments were on the market an average of 106 days in the first quarter of 2009, 18 percent longer than the same quarter in 2009, and buyers paid 94 percent of the asking price compared to 97.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008, The Brown Harris Stevens report found. "In Northern Manhattan prices declined for larger apartments during the first quarter, as fewer new development sales closed," the report said.

Apartment sales of $10 million or more declined 87 percent in the most recent quarter compared to the first quarter in 2008, according to the Brown Harris Stevens report that also noted that the average price in Manhattan was down 11 percent to $1,502,339 in the quarter and that "overall there were 58 percent fewer transactions than in the same period in 2008."

The Corcoran Report found that "total closings decreased by 52 percent over 2008's booming first quarter, and by 27 percent over the prior quarter (based on a reasonable estimate of First Quarter sales accounting for the typical lag time between a closing and its reporting in the public record.)"

"The change was most pronounced in the realm of new development properties where the diminishing pipeline of inventory, evaporating investment purchasing, and eroded buyer confidence resulted in a 67 percent drop in sales over the same quarter of 2008," Pamela Liebman, chief executive officer of Corcoran, said.

The Corcoran study indicated that the "median price of a townhouse on the West Side decreased 48 percent year-over-year" and "uptown and downtown median prices decreased 12 and 39 percent," adding that lofts larger than 2,500 square feet witnessed a 19 percent decline in their median prices.

"As global economic conditions worsened, sales activity significantly decreased during First Quarter 2009 and is at its highest level in more than eight years and has increased 29 percent over the last year."

"Last fall's rapid change in market conditions established a new housing market that reflected a lower level of activity and a reset of housing prices" and created "a sharp contraction of credit, greatly restricting demand as participants had more difficulty obtaining financing," according to the First Quarter 2009 report put out by Prudential Douglas Elliman and prepared by Jonathan Miller, the head of Miller Samuel Inc, Real Estate Appraisers.

There was a glimmer of good news as this report noted that "by the end of the first quarter there was a noticeable uptick in contract activity and attendance at open houses."

The Prudential study found that the number of sales in the quarter fell "47.6 percent to 1,195 units from 2,282 units in the prior year quarter," adding that "re-sales accounted for 57.2 percent of sales this quarter, down from 69.5 percent in the prior year quarter."

"Listing inventory reached 10,445 units at the end of the quarter, up 34.3 percent from 7,778 units in the prior year quarter," it continued.