{December 2020) Change is in the Air
I always stay up for the ball drop. This year was the first time my eyes welled up. It was more than just relief. I was never so tired, so anxious, so uncertain but also so grateful and so happy. 2020 was a monk year to me: restrained but present. I wish all my readers an adventurous 2021!
This December was a busy one for the New York real estate market. Manhattan had over 900 listings that went into contract. Usually, we have only 600-700 listings in contract in December. Prices stayed largely unchanged although we started to see bidding wars in the lower price points. My last two accepted offers were both won in bidding wars. One particular was a 7-way bidding war. This was a studio coop in the West Village. The seller was worried about an under-appraisal so he asked bidders to waive the appraisal contingency. Broadly speaking, inventory still stood high at 15 months, but it was lower than each of the past 4 months. There was also a notably better tone in the rental market. We started to get inquiries on all of our rental listings this month, even the ones that hadn’t got any inquiries in a while.
Sam Nazarian is a hotelier who just sold all of his stake in the hotel business to bet all-in on the concept of a ghost kitchen.
The NYC real estate market was the tale of two cities in October. Total transaction volume ticked higher, even though rates moved higher and sentiment was tense. Most of our new clients were understandably quiet. But quite a few of our repeat clients, the real estate veterans, were busy putting deals together.