New York Real Estate Market Shows First Signs of an Uneven Recovery

C.J. Hughes shares the latest data on the state of the New York City real estate market during the pandemic year of 2020, saying that the "pandemic's effect on the real-estate market has come into sharp relief" at the beginning of 2021.

To summarize the narrative described by the article. 2020 was grim, but a recovery is already underway.

But first the unavoidable pain of a year that saw the city prohibit apartment showings and construction for extended periods during the year:

There were 7,048 sales of co-ops and condos in Manhattan in 2020, versus 10,048 in 2019, representing a nearly 30 percent drop, according to [brokerage Douglas] Elliman, with co-op and condo sales down about equally.

Prices didn't drop nearly as much as sales, according to the same source, and demand increased for larger homes. "Apartments that sold last year typically measured 1,217 square feet, up from 1,148 in 2019," writes Hughes. Moreover, "the high-end bracket — homes listed for $5 million to $20 million — was the only one to enjoy an increase in values last year, and a large one, of more than 20 percent."

All of those trends together are bad sign for the city's existing socioeconomic divide, notes Hughes.

For signs of recovery, Hughes cites a new report from the firm Brown Harris Stevens, which found evidence of an increasing amount of sales activity in the final quarter of the year. The same report also says that available apartments are taking less time to rent.