Viewing entries tagged
signed contracts
Stats from the second quarter reaffirm Manhattan real estate’s amazing rebound. Following on the heels of a stellar Q1, surging pent-up demand and low interest rates continued to work in tandem to drive up the number of contracts signed. At this point, we have regained values that were lost to Covid discounts and, by and large, we are back to pre-pandemic pricing. It’s activity however, not pricing, that’s way up.
The resilience of the Manhattan residential real estate market was on full display in the first quarter. A new year, new administration, low interest rates, and multiple and more readily available vaccines restored hope. Covid changed the way buyers look for and value space. With pent-up demand, today’s purchasers seek units with outdoor space and private areas for home offices, working out and gathering safely.
New York is alive and getting better. The change is palpable. Establishments have been reopening for business gradually. Restaurants, gyms, museums and movie theaters along with pedestrian and car traffic have returned. Hotel and airline bookings are up. In-person classes at public high schools are resuming this week. Vaccines are more readily available. Those who have been immunized are expanding their social circles, albeit tentatively. Yankee Stadium and Citifield will host the start of the baseball season with 20% fan capacity. Tourists are trickling back. Federal stimulus coins are jingling. Days are getting longer and warmer. And the spring selling season is well underway for New York City’s residential real estate market.
Yesterday’s NY Times front page story “Possible Boom Post-Pandemic” recognizes an economic sea change. We are turning the pandemic corner, and for that we are grateful. Economists are predicting a supercharged rebound for the U.S. Days ago, in a February 18th report issued in Washington D.C., Fannie Mae Sr. VP and Chief Economist Doug Duncan predicted a 6.7% GDP increase this year, simultaneously cautioning that the same reasons for expansion might also push up inflation. “Growth,” he noted, “will accelerate sharply beginning in the second quarter.” The news bodes well for residential real estate in New York.
Manhattan real estate is recovering. Signed contracts and transaction volume are up. Especially encouraging is activity on the high end which saw 21 contracts signed over $4M in the last week of September—the highest since lockdown and the strongest final week of Q3 since 2014 when 33 contracts were signed (per the Olshan Report).
