{March, 2023} A U-Shaped March
As I’m writing this note, our suitcases are being packed and we are looking forward to a 10-day trip to Taiwan! The girls’ school invited the elementary class to visit its sister school in Taiwan. My girls are passing out from excitement! Kelly, my older one, and I engage in daily conversations about why she needs to memorize Chinese characters every evening, when she and I sit down to practice writing Chinese. I tell her it is because one of the most valuable things in my life is the fact that I am able to feel at home with both the Western and Eastern cultures. Being able to write and express herself in Chinese is an integral part of this experience. We will report from Taiwan!
This March was probably one of the most eventful months I have witnessed since starting in the business. At the beginning of March, everyone was feeling good, contracts were being signed and our team had multiple contracts out ourselves. Then, the banks failed. Understandably most buyers came to a screeching halt. I heard this loud screeching noise once last June when rates started to rise rapidly. 3 of our contracts fell out a few days after the bank failure weekend. It was a hard week. It felt like we couldn’t catch a break. Finally the buyers were able to gain their footing after 6, 7 months of relative calm and Credit Suisse went under. 160 years of history gone. However, two weeks after that, buyers started to trickle back again. These are the smart buyers who understand that rates will go down possibly at end of the year or very likely next year. At the moment, many buyers are still held back by the high rates. So buying now puts a buyer in the driver seat still since prices are not high. Once the rates start to dip, they can refi and there are good reasons to believe that the kind of bidding wars we saw at the beginning of 2022 will come back: 1. Rents are so high; 2. There is no inventory.
Good Read
Year 3 post the pandemic and New York City finally reclaims the top spot as an investment destination for global institutional real estate investors.
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.