This is a fantastic article from the Wall Street Journal!

By JOSH BARBANEL

A rise in apartment sales in Manhattan during the spring selling season, especially among expensive co-ops, led to an upward bump in average prices, according to an analysis of recent transactions, giving hope to brokers and analysts looking for a housing turnaround.

Preliminary figures compiled by The Wall Street Journal show that the median price of a Manhattan co-op hit $685,000 last month, up 9.5% when compared with the previous month and 14% higher than May 2009, when co-op prices bottomed. The median condominium price was $1.2 million, up by 4.6% compared to the previous month and 13.8% versus May 2009.

The latest data lend support to brokers, in midst of what is usually the biggest selling season of the year, who have reported a significant turn in sales activity.

The gains in median prices don't necessarily mean that prices overall are appreciating. The Wall Street Journal analysis found sales picked up the most for higher-end properties, which pushed up the average.

The sales statistics were compiled from condominium deeds and co-op tax documents filed with the New York City Department of Finance. The figures represent about 80% of the deeds for May that will eventually be filed during the coming weeks and months.

"A year ago I would never have been able to predict the pace of new deals we are seeing, it is amazing," said Hall F. Willkie, president of the residential real estate brokerage firm Brown Harris Stevens.

In May, he said, Brown Harris Stevens contracts signings were up 13% compared with the same month last year, and he said deals were strong in June as well. "There are new deals, and the market is popping," he said.

To be sure, there is also considerable room for skepticism. Average prices hit a bottom in New York in the second and third quarters of last year, and have moved up a bit since then.

But at the time, market reports said that even as overall average prices rose, prices in most individual categories, such as studios or one-bedrooms, were flat or falling. This suggests the average price rise was due more to the changing mix of apartments sold than to a fundamental shift in the market. It isn't clear whether that pattern will recur in the second quarter.

And with the stock market down, and European buyers holding off because of a declining euro, worries over a worsening economy could also put a damper on a Manhattan housing recovery in the months ahead.

During the second quarter to date, median co-op prices were up 4.8% from the previous quarter and 6.7% from the second quarter of last year. Median condo prices were up 12% from last quarter and 1.1% from the same period a year ago.

What is unclear is whether Manhattan, with its huge concentration of wealth, can escape much of the housing pain long felt by the rest of the country. CoreLogic recently forecast that national housing prices, including sales of distressed homes, would fall an additional 0.5% over the next year, before rising a bit the year after.

Jonathan Miller, an appraiser with Miller Samuel Inc., has predicted a further decline in Manhattan property values over the next three years. He cites a shadow inventory of unsold apartments, both new condominiums and resales, that haven't hit the market, and significant worries over unemployment.

Dolly Lenz, a vice chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said, however, that while the markets in the rest of the country have slowed, in Manhattan "the market is healthy. I am so busy I don't know what to do with myself."

But, like many other brokers, she said that a few buyers had held off signing contracts at the last minute, because of fears of a declining net worth.

Still, after a year of huge price chops in listings, some asking prices are now going up. According to a listing on Streeteasy.com, Ms. Lenz took over the listing of an apartment in the Dakota, on West 72nd Street, last Friday and immediately raised the listing price by 10%.

The apartment was part of the estate inherited by Indra B. Tamang, a Nepalese butler, who worked for many decades for a wealthy family in the Dakota. He was willed two apartments there by Ruth Ford, a former model and actress who died last year at the age of 98.

Although the asking price was cut repeatedly after it was listed in December 2009, to $4.5 million from $7.5 million, Ms. Lenz raised the asking price to $4.95 million when she listed it.

A few days earlier, the talk-show host Conan O'Brien was reported to have found a buyer for a sprawling duplex at the Majestic, a co-op across the street from the Dakota, at or close to the $29.5 million sale price.