Did you know that the island of Manhattan, whose current land value is estimated at $1.4 trillion, was first purchased for $24?
You read that right — just $24.
The long and rich history of New York City’s real estate market begins in 1609 with its first European settlement. In 1626, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan, then known to the Dutch as New Amsterdam, from the indigenous Lenape tribe for 60 guilders’ worth of beads and buttons — famously estimated at about $24 in modern currency.