Manhattan Homeowners Face Median $24,000 Loss on Home Sales

New York City homeowners who sold properties in 2025 saw a median gain of $70,000 after taxes and fees, but this overall figure masks a stark divide between Manhattan and the city's other four boroughs. According to a PropertyShark report analyzing nearly 15,000 residential transactions from 2025 against original purchase prices dating back to 2005, Manhattan was the only borough where sellers experienced a median loss, averaging $24,000.

The borough's underperformance was largely driven by its apartment market, where 59% of condos and 54% of co-ops were resold at a loss. Condos recorded a median loss of $58,000, and co-ops lost $11,000. The Financial District and Central Park South neighborhoods saw the steepest median losses, at $113,000 and $92,000, respectively.

Analysts attribute Manhattan's struggles to a boom in ultra-luxury condo construction that began around 2013. This development surge pushed purchase prices beyond what the resale market could support years later, particularly for those who bought properties from 2013 onward. While single-family homes in Manhattan still generated strong returns, they represented a small fraction of the borough's total sales.

In contrast, sellers in Queens and The Bronx reported median gains of $95,000 and $98,000, respectively. Brooklyn sellers saw a median gain of $159,000, and Staten Island led the city with a median gain of $164,000. IMAGE6

Timing of purchase significantly impacted returns across the city. Buyers who acquired properties between 2009 and 2012, during the post-financial crisis recovery, achieved the highest citywide median gain of $206,000. Buyers who purchased during the pandemic era, between 2020 and 2023 when prices surged, had a citywide median gain of only $9,000.

For Manhattan apartment buyers specifically, those who purchased between 2013 and 2019 incurred a median loss of $71,000, surpassing the $43,000 median loss experienced by pandemic-era buyers in the borough. This divergence is partly explained by the significant gap between median sale prices for new Manhattan developments and their resale values. Between 2016 and 2019, new developments sold for up to 16% more than in 2025, while resale values in those same years were only marginally higher.

Of the 25 New York City neighborhoods with median resale losses, 23 were located in Manhattan. The exceptions, Dumbo in Brooklyn and Glen Oaks in Queens, were neighborhoods heavily influenced by condo and co-op markets similar to Manhattan's trends.

Two- to three-family homes proved to be the most profitable asset class across the city, yielding a median gain of $324,000, significantly outperforming co-ops, which had a median gain of $22,000. IMAGE4 Brooklyn's two- to three-family homes were the strongest performers in the city, with a median resale gain of $439,000.

Staten Island's market resilience is attributed to its lack of co-ops and limited new development over the past two decades, which shielded it from the speculative condo market dynamics affecting other boroughs. Even pandemic-era sellers on Staten Island realized a median gain of $93,000.

The Bronx showed a unique trend, with buyers from the 2013-2019 luxury boom era outperforming the pre-crisis cohort, netting $118,000 compared to $110,000. This is due to the borough largely avoiding the new development wave that inflated prices elsewhere, making its resale market less vulnerable to subsequent corrections.