{September 2021} Price Increase Is Modest
September is my favorite month. The crisp fall air warmed up by the beaming sun makes my daily tour around the city a walk in the park. After more than 3 years, the person who really runs my operations, Viko has decided to go back to China to be closer to her family. It was like losing a close friend when I first heard. Thank you for the care with which you acted every day, Viko. I wish you the very best on your next journey! A wonderful young woman named Jaime Backer joined us this month. Welcome Jaime!
After a slow August, September didn’t disappoint in terms of transaction volume. An impressive number of listings went into contract this month: almost 1700, one of highest transaction volume in recent history. However, prices didn’t march upward with such clarity. What we were seeing was that some pockets of the market were steaming hot: one-bedroom condos in Brooklyn and two-family houses in the 1.5-2mm range. Nevertheless, many studio and one-bedroom units in Manhattan were not selling like hot cakes. Unless a listing had desirable features, was unique or fell into those hot-cake categories, the sellers still needed to be asking a fair price to move it. We are not in a market where anything sells in a bidding war within days of coming onto the market. Yet.
Ever wondered if there’s a Sharpe ratio for real estate investments? NYC has the best risk-adjusted returns.
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.