While the majority of the United States is suffering from low home values, many in Manhattan, NY are soaring. Four of the city´s main realty agencies provided their data for the 1^st quarter of 2008. This data shows that while overall regular sales are slow, sales in their luxury divisions are sky rocketing.

James Gricar, the Executive VP and Director for Brown Harris Stevens, explains the reason for this trend is that there are not that many luxury apartments available, however the demand for them is high, so they get bought quickly and each transaction deals with a very large sum of money.

According to reports issued by Brown Harris Stevens, the Corcoran Group, Halstead Property, and Prudential Douglas Elliman, the average price for a New York City apartment has increased by about 19%-47% from the first part of 2007 to that of 2008, making their current price ranges being near $1.63 to $1.72 million.

The median home price in Manhattan has risen to $855,000 to $945,276, over 13% from the start of 2007.