Concrete Thoughts: Bright Spots in the Investment Sales Market
Last week, I gave the keynote speech at the Asian America Real Estate Association conference in Midtown. The title of my speech was “Bright Spots in the New York City Investment Sales Market.” Normally, preparing for speeches is relatively straightforward for me. Based on the title I selected, it was more of a challenge than usual.
If you are a frequent reader of Concrete Thoughts, you know that from my perspective, the New York City investment sales market is now 50 months into a correcting market cycle. This current correction began in October of 2015 and continues today.
What is difficult to understand is that this correction in New York City investment sales, particularly in Manhattan, has taken place simultaneous with a booming broader U.S. economy and a robust local economy. In October of 2015, the U.S. economy consisted of 142.6 million jobs. As of October of 2019, the economy had 151.9 million jobs, an increase of 9.3 million jobs or 6.55 percent. The unemployment rate during the same period has fallen 1.4 percent from 5.0 percent to 3.6 percent. In the local New York City market, in October of 2015 there were 4.33 million jobs and as of this past September there were 4.65 million jobs, an increase of 320,000 jobs or 7.39 percent. Local unemployment during this period has dropped 1.1 percent from 5.2 percent to 4.1 percent.