It’s no secret that the residential market in the city has been on a tear for the last 3 months. If you’ve had an apartment on the market for sale and had no bids, something is wrong. If you’re a developer doing no deals, something is wrong. If you’re an agent not having one of the best years of your career, something is wrong. If you’re a brokerage that isn’t making ends meet, something is wrong. This fluctuation in our market has been a cleansing of sorts. There will be fewer agents, less shoddy development, and fewer independently owned brokerages when the dust settles. Those left standing will come out stronger and more resilient.
To those who sounded the alarm (AKA dumb-asses), you now realize that New York City is never going anywhere. How many bear markets will it take for people to acknowledge that it would take a cataclysmic event more significant than a global pandemic for New York to fail? (Not sure what that might be, but it would have to be really rotten). And now, like we’ve experienced it before, every tried and true New Yorker can’t help but feel a sense of vindication. Your real estate holdings would be worth more now if you had not sold your apartment and high-tailed it out of town.
Now the question everyone will start to ask is, “How long can this bull market go on?”
It came fast and furious, but there is still more room to grow. The activity we’ve seen driving the recovery has relied solely on local (and some small domestic) interest. Once the borders open up and the international barrier of COVID vanishes (or fades), the floodgates will open, and all of the international buyers will be back looking to buy a piece of the best city in the world.
I experienced this appetite first hand when I went on a roadshow through China pre-COVID. The desire to own an apartment in NYC was big. We sold a ton of inventory (the most ever for a New York City project) and could have kept selling if the sponsor hadn’t slammed on the brakes.
Fasten your seatbelts because this party is only warming up, and if you or your client are looking to buy in the city – stop waiting and get your act together. It’s about to get crazy.
Let’s do this!
-Shaun