A three-bedroom condo on the 68th floor of Central Park Tower found a buyer at $20.5 million, topping a week that saw Manhattan's luxury real estate market snap back from its late-summer slump with 24 signed contracts asking $4 million or more. The unit, listed for more than three years, closed at a steep discount to the nearly $25 million its developer originally sought when marketing began in 2018.
The jump from 15 contracts the prior week to 24 during Aug. 24-30 marks a notable rebound, according to The Real Deal, which tracked the figures compiled by Olshan Realty. Unit 68E spans more than 3,100 square feet with three bathrooms, 11-foot ceilings, and views overlooking Central Park, and it ranked as the priciest of the 24 homes that found buyers that week. Extell, the developer behind the supertall, heads sales at Central Park Tower with an in-house team rather than an outside brokerage.
The building itself needs little introduction on Billionaires' Row. Central Park Tower stands 1,550 feet tall, making it the tallest purely residential building in the world, according to Wikipedia, which also credits Extell Development Company with developing the tower alongside Shanghai Municipal Investment Group. Amenities span an indoor and outdoor pool, a fitness center, and a residents' lounge on the 100th floor — part of the Central Park Club package that, per 6sqft, spans 50,000 square feet across three floors and tops out with a private restaurant, ballroom, wine bar, and lounge 1,000 feet above the street.
A Penthouse Still Waiting for Its Buyer
Not every unit in the building has moved as smoothly. A penthouse in the tower was pulled from the market in early April 2026 after being previously priced at $29 million when it was listed in August 2025, per the same Real Deal report. It was relisted with a price cut in May 2026 and now asks just under $28 million, underscoring how even trophy addresses on Billionaires' Row are contending with buyers who expect discounts on long-sitting inventory.
That pattern held across the broader market last week. The typical Manhattan luxury property that went into contract had spent more than two years on the market and was discounted by 16 percent from its original ask, the outlet's data show. The pipeline crunch behind that patience has been building for a while — Manhattan's finished new-construction luxury inventory dropped roughly 62 percent year-over-year by mid-2026, according to research by Miller Samuel reported by Hoodline, concentrating demand on remaining trophy towers like Central Park Tower even as sponsors hold firm on price for months at a time.
An Upper East Side Prewar Rounds Out the Week
The week's second-priciest contract came at 988 Fifth Avenue, a 1925 Italian Renaissance-style prewar building with just 12 units, doormen, storage, and a live-in resident manager. A sixth-floor home there — five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and roughly 3,600 square feet — was listed asking $18.5 million after last trading for $11 million in 2008. The listing was shared among Compass agents Becca Schreiber, Clay Ezell, Lorand Kovacs, and Elizabeth Sahlman. The 13-story building, designed by architect J.E.R. Carpenter, has historically housed notable figures including Grace Kelly, according to Zillow.
Across the full slate of 24 contracts, the property types skewed toward condos, with 12 condo deals alongside seven co-ops and five townhouses. Combined asking prices for the group totaled $189 million, with an average ask of $7.9 million and a median of $6.2 million, per the same Real Deal data.
Zooming Out on a Strong Year for Trophy Sales
The late-summer rebound arrives against a backdrop of a stronger trophy market overall. Buyers have signed contracts for 218 properties asking $10 million or more since the start of 2026, compared with 202 properties during the same period in 2025 — evidence that Manhattan's trophy segment has outperformed last year's pace even as the broader luxury market cooled into the dog days of August.
That seasonal cooling is typical: the 10-year historical average for signed contracts priced at $4 million or more during the third week of August stands at just 17 deals, according to Olshan Realty data cited by The Real Deal. Hoodline previously tracked the market's slide to 15 deals the prior week and the earlier Flatiron-led pace of 18 contracts the week before that, meaning last week's jump to 24 deals represents a marked reversal of the summer trend rather than a continuation of it.
Because weekly contract trackers capture deals the moment they are signed, they offer a real-time read on wealth deployment that diverges from official deed recordings, which can lag by months or years once new-construction closings and tax filings are finalized. Buyers on deals in the $20 million to $25 million range also face New York's progressive mansion tax, which adds a 3.75 percent transfer tax at closing — meaning the Central Park Tower buyer could owe more than $750,000 in transfer taxes on top of the $20.5 million purchase price, according to Prospect Places.
