{May 2021} Building Up to Price Recovery
We went to our first birthday party since the lockdown this past weekend! WSJ featured an article titled The Great American Reunion, as friends and families came together to celebrate the Memorial weekend. Streets are filling up with people once again in NYC (I had to wait in line to buy a croissant at a local bakery yesterday, while I could zip in and out with two for one for many months). I marvel at our collective resilience, and I try to remember the gift of stillness 2020 accidentally gave us.
The NYC real estate market is moving with increasing momentum. For the most part, the market is still working on absorbing the excess supply from the 2015-2019 cycle, as well as last year’s lockdown. For the last three months, we have around 1600 listings going into contract every month. This is almost 50% higher than a regular busy season. Our total inventory continues to decline: the absorption rate stands at 11 months, almost 50% lower than the peak reached in last October. Total supply is at the same level as that of late 2019, right before the pandemic. That was when our market started to see increased activities and prices were about to turn. There is also a sustained high level of activities in the luxury segment, homes worth 4mm or more, for the past 5 weeks. For now we are only seeing price improvement in a few pockets of the market. But all signs are pointing to a more broad-based price recovery later this year.
Local Events
“Futures Ever Arriving”
Head to Chelsea Market for an exhibit featuring works from five emerging Asian American artists in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Visitors can see the entire exhibit through a self-guided tour map with the locations of each piece marked throughout the main concourse. Read more HERE.
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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.