NYC Real Estate October Market Update

How should I buy or sell in this soft Market?
Sellers! Don’t be greedy or expect a much longer marketing time.
Buyers! Do your homework and stick to your guns. Lowballs don’t work.

After a pop in September, the New York real estate market continued the slow down-drift in price in October but managed to keep up the pace of transactions. Median Sales Price (MSP) for deals went into contract in Oct was $1.1mm for the broad market including condos and coops. On a $/sqft basis, the broad market was down about 5% from 6 months ago. Against this soft background, it is important to remember that even during the last half year when prices drifted down 5%, a consistent 70-80% of listed apartments went into contract after an average Days on Market (DOM) of 60-80 days. It is not uncommon to see closing prices over 10% off the original asking prices, but for listings with an original asking price within 2% of the closing price, DOM is much shorter.