Manhattan Residential RE Surging

Sales of Manhattan residential real estate surged 73% in the first quarter compared with the level recorded a year earlier, running counter to the trend seen virtually everywhere else in the United States, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview.The increase in demand has been fostered by record bonus income and stabilizing mortgage rates, the company said. "Manhattan's real estate market has been very good, and these numbers are even better than we had anticipated," said Dottie Herman, president and chief executive officer of Prudential Douglas Elliman. "Real estate in Manhattan doesn't mirror anything else we're seeing in the rest of the country." The author of the report, Jonathan J. Miller, is president and CEO of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based residential real estate appraisal firm.