NYC Real Estate - November 2021

Greetings and a quick note to wish you the happiest holiday season!?Thank you for being an active reader for my monthly NYC market reports. Your support encourages me to work harder and write meaningful content for you that would help you make smarter Real Estate decisions.

Manhattan Overview:?

Traditionally, homeowners are cautioned against listing during the winter months. People are more focused on the holiday season, and home shopping may not be the priority. However, this has been an unusual year in deal volume, and we continued to see high contract activity in November. While both listing and deal volume are lower after Thanksgiving, the decline in new listings is outpacing the decline in contracts.

Supply?

There are currently approximately 5,600 units listed in the market, and November saw 1,156 new properties hit the market, which was about a 40% decrease compared to October.

Contract Activity?

A total of 1,306 contracts were signed in November, which was 2.8% higher than that of October.?

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We can see that while contract activity levels are not high as summer, the decrease in contract activity is being outpaced by a decline in new inventory coming to the market.

NYC Real Estate Truth: TIME ERODES PRICES

Real Estate sellers care about 2 things: How much they can get for their property and how long it will take to get it.?

Buyers: Discounts! How low will the seller go? These questions are united by a simple measure:?TIME.?

?History of Manhattan Discounts

?In the last 15 years, the best period in terms of Listing discounts was during the 2008-2009 credit crisis when the average discount reached 16%.?

By April 2015, when the Real Estate market went frenzy the average listing discount was 1.5%.?Fast-forward to the second quarter of 2020, during COVID lockdown, the average discount rose to above 10%. As the market recovered in 2021, the?average discount is now 5.2%.

Listing Discounts:? Can a Buyer expect a 5% discount in this market?

It depends - On time! As we can see with the below chart deals that went into contract quickly, went so with very low discounts. Since price is the primary independent variable in a listing, the short time spent on the market suggests that?sellers priced right.

On the other hand, sellers who got it wrong lingered on the market for more than 120 days and only received 78% and 84% of their asking price in 2009 and 2020 respectively.

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Conclusion:??Time erodes prices!?

The best way to understand discounts is time on the market.??For Sellers - pricing right, and listen to the market.?

For Buyers: Focus on units the broader market has left behind.

The market remains healthy, and there is enough opportunity for Sellers to consider listing their property for sale and take advantage of an active market before a busy spring market when there will be a surge of newer listings will hit the market.?

Note: Data and Charts used in this report - UrbanDigs, and Compass

Brooklyn report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjYdVll9mqYTL8kJmN8Kq6-Bid5Fk2XD/view?usp=sharing

Queens report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V8j5bcRYj2-2cOzSUMRTrePpjJrCxc0e/view?usp=sharing

Have questions about NYC market forecasts and trends, or anything else real estate-related? I'd love to connect! Don't hesitate to reach out.

About Nishant Sondhi:?Nishant is a Real Estate salesperson in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and specializes in Residential Real Estate. He is passionate about helping buyers and sellers navigate the New York market, and save them thousands of dollars, time and make the process enjoyable. His strong analytical, marketing, and negotiation skills developed during his MBA and over 10 years of sales experience give him a unique edge to best serve his clients.