Sales volume back to pre-pandemic levels. Co-op and condo prices up slightly.
Sales Volume in New York Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels
According to different reports from various brokerage firms, sales volume in New York City spiked this spring. The most recent report written by Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Appraisal, for Douglas Elliman, indicated that deal volume increased +152% y/y from April to June. Likewise, sales volume also spiked when comparing Q2 2021 figures to Q1 2021 figures.
In fact, Q2 2021 sales volume was just slightly below its most recent high point level in Q3 2015.
Miller addressed many people’s earliest fears that New Yorkers would leave the Big Apple permanently by saying, “The way people were looking at the city a year ago, it would now be a dystopian hellscape with nine people left in Manhattan. But it seems that cooler heads have prevailed.”
Pamela Liebman, president and chief executive with Corcoran, agreed. “A year-and-a-half after the pandemic began, it’s safe to say that New York City has its mojo back.”
Buyers Gravitated to Co-Ops
Co-ops, overlooked by buyers over the last several years, accounted for 49% of all sales in the first half of this year, according to Corcoran. Existing condominium sales made up 37% of all sales.
Compass indicted that 31% of all its closed deals were in the neighborhoods of the East Village, SoHo and Chelsea. Units in the financial district, a ghost town during the height of the pandemic as office buildings emptied, “came back” in terms of both sales and prices.
Elizabeth Stribling-Kivlan, senior managing director with Compass, said that median prices in the financial district soared +33% y/y, the largest price increase in any NYC neighborhood. Stribling-Kivlan said, “People are feeling like they want to come back to (Manhattan,) they want to see what will come (next)…of new era for us.”
All real estate professionals are expressing cautious optimism that Manhattan will resemble its old self once more workers return to offices in the fall.
Prices Still Reflect Pandemic Discounts
Prices in Q2 2021 were only slightly above last spring’s prices due, brokers say, to an oversupply of apartments. Co-ops traded for an average price of $1.9M and condominium prices came in with a median of $1.1M.
Miller said that the price per square foot for resale apartments declined -3.6% y/y from $1,461 to $1,408 this spring. The pandemic discount buyers are paying on list prices is approximately 6.4%, better than in 2020 but still higher that the decade average of 4.9%.
Miller noted, “Prices are still not at parity with a year ago. There still is a COVID discount out there but it’s easing.”
Thanks to Douglas Elliman, Corcoran, Compass and The New York Times.
