Manhattan residential prices setting new records.

Average sales prices in the Manhattan residential real estate market have risen for five straight quarters and sales prizes for the Silk Stocking area have risen for eight straight quarters. Reported in Halstead's New York, a quarterly statistical report on the Manhattan residential real estate market below 96th Street, Halstead's market indexes for all Manhattan and the Silk Stocking luxury areas show that average sales prices have once again broken all previous records. Compared to the second quarter of 1996, average sales price per room below 96th Street were up 19.6 percent, with an average sales price of $126,917. Average Silk Stocking sales prices were up 20.2 percent, with an average price per room of $272,713.

In addition to prices spiraling up, the average length of time a property stays on the market has dropped significantly. In the second quarter of 1997, the average number of days a property stayed on the market was 145.57 days, compared to the second quarter of 1996 at an average of 225.51 days, a 35 percent decrease. Average selling price is also approaching average asking price, with a 91.225 percent negotiation index (the amount of asking price achieved in the sale) for the second quarter of 1997, compared to 85.407 percent for the same time last year.

"On the West Side alone, we've seen almost 40 percent of the properties that sold in the last year go for their asking price or above," said Clark Halstead, founder of The Halstead Property Company. "The market simply has a life of its own at the moment. It will certainly coot off at, some point, but it's still moving very fast now."

Properties of all sizes increased in price an average of 19.6 percent. Large two-bedroom apartments saw the largest increase in price of 28.9 percent for an average sales price of $781,610. Small two bedrooms increased in price 22.6 percent for an average sales price of $449,474. Apartments with more than two-bedrooms broke the $2 million mark with an average sales price of $2,018,965, an increase of 8.2 percent.

In the second quarter of 1997, average sale price per room in all the neighborhoods saw an increase, with the exception of the neighborhood bordered by Sutton and Beckman, which dropped only 1.7 percent compared to the same time last year. The West Side between 60th and 79th streets had a whopping 43.7 percent increase since the second quarter of 1996. The second largest increase was the neighborhood bordered by West End Avenue and Central Park West between 60th and 79th Streets with a 37.2 percent increase in price. Other neighborhoods which had more than a 20 percent increase included West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, the West Side between 79th and 96th streets, and Lexington and Second Avenue.