Manhattan home sales surge as price discounts draw in buyers

New York

MANHATTAN homebuyers found deals they couldn't refuse in the second quarter, driving up sales of previously owned properties by the most in more than two years.

Purchases of resale homes jumped 16 per cent from a year earlier to 2,597, according to a report on Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Buyer interest was fuelled by average price cuts of 6.1 per cent across all property types. The last time the average discount was larger was the third quarter of 2012, when it was 7.2 per cent. Sellers of luxury apartments took the whittling further, cutting prices by an average of 10 per cent, the most since the end of 2010 and the second-biggest discounts in more than 16 years of record-keeping.