Monday, January 11, 2010
Real estate is seeing mixed signals from several reports that came out this week regarding the health of the market. A bumpy ride is certain, but how bumpy, and how long?
On the one hand, the National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index for contracts signed in November fell 16 percent from October. Alarmingly, the index dropped highest, 25.7 percent in the Northeast, on par with Midwest. In the Northeast it’s still 14/7 percent above November 2008 levels. On the other hand, that’s 15.5 percent higher than November 2008, prompting NAR’s chief economist La
Read More
Posted in Buyers Notes, Market Conditions | Email to a Friend | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
The end of the 2009 showed some positive signs for the industry, according to fourth-quarter reports published today by several different brokerages: while prices continued slipping, the rate of decline slowed, activity rose sharply, and inventory diminished. Some industry analysts are expecting prices in Manhattan to rise in early 2010–but another dip later in the year is also likely, many say. We’re still an average 25 percent down from the peak, but numbers released by Prudential Douglas Elliman, The Corcoran Group and Halstead Property/Brown Harris Stevens show average sales
Read More
Posted in Quarterly Report | Email to a Friend | No Comments »
Monday, January 04, 2010
It was an unprecedented year for most of us in New York real estate. All of a sudden, the mantra of “20-percent down or bust”–or even 10 percent down, for that matter–no longer applies, as mortgages can be had for as little as 3.5 percent down in certain neighborhoods. And when was the last time anyone could happily underbid on an asking price and expect to get the home of their dreams?
“It was a difficult year,” said the president of Halstead, speaking to Crain’s New York. It was “one of the weakest markets in decades,” reads a report re
Read More
Posted in Buyers Notes, Economy, Inventory, Market Conditions | Email to a Friend | No Comments »
Friday, December 11, 2009
With demand coming back , but credit, while cheap , still incredibly hard to come by, New York’s real estate brokers are seeing more and more buyers offering cash outright—and getting sweeter deals as a result, and faster, than mortgage-backed offers. The Real Deal found that brokers are now doing 40 to 100 percent of their deals in cash, a marked difference from the market’s peak in 2007. One real estate attorney, for example, said that only 20 percent of his clients paid cash in 2007—compared to 50 percent this year.
The trend is not only due to the difficulty of obtaining
Read More
Posted in Buyers Notes, Economy, Market Conditions | Email to a Friend | No Comments »
Monday, December 07, 2009
New York City real estate buyers may have, after a good long run, lost their upper hand, according to a residential market report released by The Real Deal last week. Since the start of the national economic meltdown, residential real estate buyers in New York became stronger, as evidenced by every indicator available in the profession. Time on market increased drastically for all types of properties, from new construction to luxury conversions. Average listing discount rose four-fold, forcing sellers to offer signing incentives ranging from a month’s free rent to free trips to Italy.
Read More
Posted in Market Conditions | Email to a Friend | No Comments »
