May 17 - Blog

I recently toured a $29M Upper East Side (UES) penthouse that may be familiar to fans of the HBOMax series, Succession. In the tv series, the home is Kendall Roy’s (played by Jeremy Strong), the eldest son of Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox), founder and CEO of the fictional media conglomerate Waystar Royco. The 9,000 square foot home (penthouse and terrace combined) is the epitome of luxury offering the most spectacular views. Meanwhile, across town on the Upper West Side (UWS), Kendall’s fictional brother, Roman Roy’s (played by Kieran Culkin) penthouse at 200 Amsterdam, the tallest building on the UWS, is listed by Brown Harris Stevens for a whopping $38 million. And to button up the Succession real-life listings, Kendall’s fictional ex-wife Rava’s home located downtown in the iconic Woolworth Building went into contract a couple years ago at a $23 million asking price.

For some, getting an inside look into how the top one percent lives is fascinating. Many of these shows, e.g., Sex and the City or Friends, film on the studio lots where they recreate the interiors of these homes; but there are instances when shows actually film on location. Another example that was just recently listed was Miranda Priestly’s (played by Meryl Streep) home in The Devil Wears Prada. The UES townhouse just hit the market for a cool $27.5 million.

There’s no doubt that there is tremendous wealth in New York City, which was just ranked the wealthiest city in the world by Henley & Partners. Clearly there is no shortage of millionaires in our fair city according to the just released report. It reported 340,000 millionaires are living in NYC putting us at the top, with Tokyo coming in a far second with a reported 290,300 millionaires. This just substantiates why New York’s luxury market continues to thrive; and thanks to our favorite tv shows and movies, we get a glimpse of how the uber wealthy live, albeit fictional.

Although I noted in my last email that two of the most expensive luxury contracts were deeply discounted a few weeks back, Manhattan’s luxury market has since then bounced right back. According to Olshan Realty, Manhattan’s luxury segment had its strongest week this year with 40 signed contracts averaging $7.5 million.

Whether you like to daydream or are seriously looking to find your own trophy home, one thing that I think we can all agree on is that NYC luxury real estate is like no other in the world.