Manhattan contracts jump 44.5% in October, 14.7% below 2025

Brooklyn is the stronger pricing story in the same release. Its median sale price reached $1,133,750, up 14.5% from last October and up 3.1% from September, and sellers gave up an average of 5% off ask.

The numbers

Manhattan inventory rose to 6,540, up 5.1% from September and down 11.2% from last October. Co-op contracts surged 50.7% month over month to 523, with a median price of $896,500, up 8.0% year over year. Condo contracts rose 34.5% to 390, but condo price per square foot fell 2.4% year over year. Manhattan townhouses posted a median of $8,740,000, up 16.1%.

In Brooklyn, closings rose 8.3% year over year to 754. Contracts climbed 16.4% month over month to 490 but sit 16.7% below last year. Inventory edged up to 3,544, still 4.6% below last October. Houses anchored the borough, with closings up 20.6% to 386 and a median of $1,300,000.

Working back from Compass’s percentages, 926 contracts implies roughly 641 in September and about 1,086 in October 2025. Those two figures are our arithmetic, not Compass’s.

What’s next

Compass says the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4.00% on October 28 and that the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 7.18% in the first week of November. Compass notes that a large share of New York purchases are all cash, but that financed buyers are underwriting around the higher rates. The November reports will show whether October’s pace held. More on the city’s deals and filings is in our New York market coverage.

All figures are from Compass’s November 2026 NYC Market Update and its October Manhattan and Brooklyn market reports, as provided to The American Developer.