By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — The Upper West Side is besting their hoity-toity counterpart to the East in the real estate race — for now.
With 385 apartments in contract, the Upper West Side saw signings jump nearly 15 percent from January until now, according to a new analysis by UrbanDigs, a Manhattan real estate analytics and consulting firm.
The Upper East Side, on the other hand, is lagging behind: It has seen a 3.6 percent dip in signed contracts.
Both have roughly 1,000 of apartments on the market, the analysis shows.
"The pace of demand on the Upper West Side is stronger," said Noah Rosenblatt, publisher and founder of UrbanDigs. Since the competition seems fiercer there, he said, buyers "have to be more aggressive."
But the Upper East Side market may fight back.
Last year at this time, both neighborhoods saw a roughly 5 percent dip in signed contracts. By the end of bonus season — which lasts from January through May — the Upper East Side pulled ahead, Rosenblatt pointed out.
Signed contracts there rose 28 percent from January through May, while the Upper West Side ended with only a 13 percent increase.
Rosenblatt was looking just at the volume of pending contracts and inventory, not at apartment prices.
The average sales price for Upper East Side co-ops last year was $1.5 million and $1.96 million for condos, according to a recent Prudential Douglas Elliman report. The average sales price for Upper West Side co-ops last year was $1.5 million and $1.92 million for condos.
