Here's a breakdown of Manhattan and Brooklyn housing prices in the second quarter of 2008, according to reports from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.

Average sales price

• Manhattan: $1,669,729
• Brooklyn: $588,441

Median sales price

• Manhattan: $1,025,000
• Brooklyn: $525,000

Average condo sales price

• Manhattan: $1,937,090
• Brooklyn: $601,280

Median condo sales price

• Manhattan: $1,267,000
• Brooklyn: $514,725

Average co-op sales price

• Manhattan: $1,280,201
• Brooklyn: $332,250

Median co-op sales price

• Manhattan: $755,000
• Brooklyn: $255,000

Next Tuesday is April 1, and the first-quarter housing market reports for Manhattan will start trickling out from brokerages like Halstead, Corcoran and Douglas Elliman. What will they say about home sales?

No one knows for certain, of course, but the speculation should pick up noticably in the next few days so here goes:

The first quarter of any year is usually relatively paltry in terms of the number of closed deals because those deals were cut in the winter months, which are normally among the slowest in Manhattan housing.  read more »

Manhattan's population grew 3.8 percent from July 1, 2001--two months before September 11--to July 1, 2007, according to new Census estimates. The borough's population now stands at an estimated 1,620,867. That's roughly 71,403 Manhattanites per square mile.

Brooklyn is the seventh-largest county in the United States, according to new census estimates. The County of Kings has 2,528,050 residents. Queens was No. 10 with 2,270,338; and Manhattan was No. 19 with 1,620,867 residents. The census' estimates run through July 1, 2007.

Although all three experienced population gains over previous years' estimates going back to 2000, none were among the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties; nor were the Bronx or Staten Island. The Bronx was No.  read more »

I wrote in this week's paper about how, even after all the calamitous economic news (like Bear Stearns' collapse), Manhattan rents appear buoyant if not strong. Most of the average rents I cited were for one-bedroom apartments.  read more »

Brokers, developers, and the media have been trumpeting the resilience of Manhattan’s condo and co-op market for nearly a year, and now even the Federal Reserve has singled it out in the latest installment of its regional survey known as the “Beige Book.”  read more »

The Wall Street Journal this morning asked the eternally burning question: Will Manhattan home sales drop like sales have been dropping in other markets around the country?

The Journal cites a Corcoran Group analysis which showed a 9.9 percent year-over-year September drop in the number of Manhattan home sales going to contract.

That got us to wondering: What do the borough's home sales usually do in September? The answer is they go up--or they go down.  read more »

Congratulations to us all! Manhattan has maintained its spot as America's wealthiest county. A Manhattanite's salary averages $2,821 a week, according to the Wall Street Journal (and that's sans bonuses).

Believe it or not, rents are going down in Manhattan.

At least that is what a report from The Real Estate Group is saying. In their August 2007 Manhattan Rental Market Report, the brokerage states that, after a peak this summer, rents are down boroughwide.

And the neighborhood where one-bedrooms had the steepest decline? Soho. In July, you would be paying close to $3,800 for a one-bedroom in a non-doorman building in the trendy neighborhood. Now, rentals are available for about $3,400.

According to the report, landlords are not reducing rents to deal with increasing vacancy. Rather, they are offering to pick up all or part of an apartment’s broker fee. Well, that is nice of them.

The full release about the report is after the jump.  read more »