A Market Reawakened
With crowded sidewalks in residential neighborhoods, fully opened up restaurants and rush hour traffic back, it’s natural that the residential real estate market in Manhattan has returned in a big way. Just like that within a short time period, the market has morphed from a buyer’s to seller’s market with bidding wars becoming the norm again and days on the market shrinking.
Total supply of inventory on the market continues to dip with the number of sales continuing to climb. As of May 21, there were 7,390 apartments on the market in Manhattan, which is down from a peak of 9,268 apartments last October. On the other hand, the amount of monthly contract activity, apartments going into contract was 1,607 for April and 1,487 for March. These are the two highest months of monthly contract activity since January 2012. This absorption of inventory has set the stage for the market to enter into a seller’s market. Buyers are taking advantage of the low interest rates to purchase more expensive properties at lower price per square foot. This market pulse chart from UrbanDigs shows how fast the Manhattan market has changed from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market. This seller’s market came about towards the end of 2020 when more buyers entered the market.
