Metro

‘Real’ rush to sell out

There was one big fiscal-cliff winner — the white-hot Manhattan real-estate market.

There were a stunning 2,598 sales in the last three months of 2012 — the highest for a Manhattan fourth quarter in at least 25 years, according to a new analysis.

Homeowners fearing a huge jump in capital gains in 2013 hurried to beat the clock.

“There was a mad rush to close by the end of the year,” said Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman. “We worked up until New Year’s Eve.”

The fourth quarter is traditionally a quiet period for Manhattan real-estate sales. But anticipation of tax changes in 2013 meant that the fast momentum of 2012’s third quarter “just kept going,” said market analyst Jonathan Miller.

“No one was sure what was going to happen, what we were going to end up with, but everyone anticipated [tax rates] going in the same direction — which was up,” said Miller, who prepared the quarterly Elliman report released today.

The maximum rate for long-term capital gains had been 15 percent under the Bush-era tax rates, for individuals earning up to $85,650 a year or families earning up to $142,700.

That rate would have jumped to 20 percent across the board if the nation had gone over the fiscal cliff.

Under the terms of the fiscal-cliff deal reached Tuesday, capital-gains taxes increased only for annual incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households. They will pay a new capital gains tax rate of 23.8 percent that includes an ObamaCare investment-income surtax of 3.8 percent.

In the fall, nobody knew what kind of deal would be reached — or whether there would be a deal.

“We noticed as early as August that there was a lot of financial planning,” Miller said.

The sales prices ranged widely during the final three months of 2012.

The highest was the astonishing $54 million that David Geffen paid for Denise Rich’s 20-room, five-bedroom penthouse at 785 Fifth Ave.

At the other end was a studio at 1834 Second Ave. that sold for $109,000 last month, the least expensive sale through Elliman.

At the same time that sales boomed, the supply of available homes shrank.

Listing inventory fell to 4,749 apartments, “the lowest level in the 12 years I’ve been tracking it,” said Miller.

Dirt-cheap interest rates and continued economic improvement also fueled the hot Manhattan market.

“With the upcoming changes in tax laws, record low interest rates and the inventory of available apartments 30 percent below a year ago, the incredible activity in the fourth quarter was not surprising,” said Hall Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens.

Prices remained stable. The median price, including all co-ops and condos, was $850,000, down 1.8 percent for the year.

But don’t expect that to last. Herman said that after three flat years, and falling prices before that, the market is poised for price increases “anywhere from 5 to 8-9 percent” in 2013.

The luxury market remains hot. There were 23 sales of $10 million-plus properties in the last quarter, compared with 16 in the same period of 2011, according to Brown Harris Stevens’ quarterly report.

andy.soltis@nypost.com