More people signed to buy new homes in Manhattan last month than in the previous August, but most of those homes sold for $1 million or less.

And it doesn’t look as if the luxury market’s coming back anytime soon.

In all, 654 buyers agreed on Manhattan homes worth $500,000 or less in June, July and August, compared with 388 in the summer of 2008, but only eight agreed on homes worth $10 million or more, compared with 39 the previous summer.