Contracts down for residential units.

Fewer contracts were signed for residential units in Manhattan in January compared to the previous three months, according to the Core Group Marketing's latest Real Time Report. Contracts were still signed for one-bedroom units in every Manhattan neighborhood last month, but most neighborhoods saw no sales of three-, four-, five- or six-bedroom units. Only on the Upper East and West sides were contracts signed for apartments of every size. Larger units with higher price points spent more time on the market in January than smaller units with lower price points. Inventory declined in January as sellers who weren't in a hurry to sell took their homes off the market. The Core Real Time Report was first issued last month and uses data from the company's database. "At face value, contracts are a terrific way [to look at the market] because they're closer to the point where a meeting of the minds occurs," said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. But "it's not clear to me whether [this data] represents a cross-section of contracts," he said. TRD