It was only a matter of time until the $100 million NYC apartment sale barrier was broken. As expected by New Construction Manhattan, the most expensive sale of a New York City residential unit in history has transpired at the yet-to-be finished One57, a new Manhattan condominium that has already accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in apartment sales. Expected to shell out $250 million in total, Qatar’s powerful prime minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, is purchasing the city’s most expensive penthouse, along with four separate full-floor condos in the 90-story building.

According to an article in Wednesday's New York Times, three-bedroom Manhattan apartments and four-bedroom apartments are all the rage amongst families. It makes arithmetical sense, of course -- more kids, more bedrooms, Q.E.D. -- but the boom in sales of three- and four-bedroom Manhattan apartments indicates that a demographic that traditionally hightails it to the suburbs might be opting for Manhattan condos instead. Despite the fact that new condominium sales have been comparatively flat over the past year, sales of three-bedroom and four-bedroom Manhattan apartments have drastically increased -- whether it's because families are looking for more space for their children, space for guest bedrooms, or a tricked-out media room varies from case to case, of course. But clearly there's something going on here.