New York City's luxury real estate market has been hit hard by the pandemic, with some properties selling for less than half their original asking prices.

In the second quarter, the number of luxury co-op and condo closings in Manhattan was down 54 percent from last year, and the median sales price was down 11 percent, according to Miller Samuel.

Total closings remained down for the quarter at dramatically lower rates than in the months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, the data shows.

It comes on top of an already soft luxury market in recent years, with many of the ultra-wealthy reconsidering residency in New York over tax concerns, but the latest blow has some desperate sellers slashing prices even further. 

Although New York's property market has already bounced off of April lows, the recovery has been sluggish at best, and the future remains in question as the pandemic, economic hardship, and soaring crime continue to send many New Yorkers fleeing.

In late July, financier Michael Price sold his nearly 9,000-square-foot Upper East Side townhouse for $18.8 million, or 51 percent off its original asking price of $38 million in 2016, according to The Real Deal.

The limestone-and-brick property includes seven bedrooms, 8.5 bathrooms, a wine cellar, a gym and an ultra-secure 'panic room'.   

Price and his wife Jennifer Price originally purchased the property for $14 million in 2003, records show. 

In another deep discount sale, a five-story Chelsea mansion sold in early July for $14.99 million, or 59 percent off its original 2016 listing price of $36.8 million, records show.