The average price of new condominiums in the greater Tokyo area surged in October, boosted by rising construction costs and an increase in the number of pricey high-rise condos. The Real Estate Economic Institute, a private think tank, says the average price in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures stood at over 92 million yen, or nearly 600,000 dollars. That marks an increase of 40.7 percent from a year before. The figure for Tokyo's central 23 wards was 129.4 million yen. The number of units put on the market rose 23.4 percent to 1,833.