Category Archives: Marketreports

Is Airbnb causing NYC renters to pay higher rents?

According to a report by the NYC Comptroller’s office, which analyzed data from 2009 to 2016, rents are rising in NYC due to the “Airbnb effect.” Citywide, the number of listings on the home sharing site have increased from 1000 to 40,000 in the time period. The report analyzed what the rent increases would have been in these neighborhoods with what they actually were and attributed the difference to the Airbnb. Their analysis concluded that roughly 9.2% of the citywide rent increases were attributed to airbnb.

I am not sure if I agree with their numbers but I do see apartments that are pulled off of the regular rental market to be used solely for airbnb rentals. I even went to recent open house in Harlem where the agent mentioned that the apartment was netting the owner approximately $2k per month over the normal rental price due to posting it on the Airbnb site. Apartments like that do come off of the market. Also, on the upper west side in one luxury rental building, landlords have reportedly been looking the other way, while tenants are using the listings site to rent out their apartments to tourists and as a result, the landlord receives a higher monthly rent that they would have otherwise.

City Comptroller Report on Airbnb effect

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Harlem Townhouse market update

Since April 1st, 22 townhouses have been in the market. The lowest price offering was for an SRO priced at just under $2 million to a historic home asking $5.25 million on Lenox avenue. This is a pretty significant amount of townhouses put in the market. Streeteasy is currently showing 19 townhouses in contract. Most of the townhouses have gone into contract in the first 4 months of the year.  4 contracts for Harlem townhouses were signed since April 1st. At that pace it would take about 6 months to sell off just the supply of houses that came on the market in April.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Park West Village on Manhattan’s Upper west side inventory low

Here is the update on the market conditions in Park West Village, the 4 building condo complex that runs from West 97th street to West 100th street between Columbus and Central Park west. Inventory is low with each building having no more than 3 units available for sale. Considering that each building has over 400 units, that’s a minuscule amount of inventory available. Interestingly, there are no 2 bedroom/2bathroom apartments available right now in the Upper West side complex.

The table below shows the number of active listings, contracts signed this year that have not closed and closed sale since the beginning of the year.

 

Building # listings contracts sold
400 3 1 3
392 2 1 3
382 3 4 3
372 2 1 5

 

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Manhattan market reports as of April 19

According to the latest market reports, the average listing price is down about 10% compared to last year, but 25 contracts over $4 million were signed last week. $849 million dollars of contracts have been signed in the $4million and up segment since the last week of March which is the best start of the Spring market since 2015. What do these seemingly differing numbers mean? The luxury/new development market has been in a buyer’s market for about 2 years now. As a result, the buyer and seller expectations are more inline with each other than lower price points. For the last year or so, new developments have been open to negotiations. Additionally, some projects have been paused or never got off the ground. So the existing inventory is being sold.

This is unlike the below $4 million price market where sellers’ expectations needs to adjust to the current reality and that they will not achieve the same prices that were reached a year ago. Manhattan buyer’s market tend not to last very long.

Additional data here

Broker confidence up according to latest study

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

 

29 Luxury contracts signed last week

Last week was another strong week of sales of Manhattan property listed at $4 million and above as 29 contracts were signed according to the Olshan report. The most expensive contracts were a couple of resales ,units 71A and 71B, at 432 Park avenue which were asking a combined $68.5 million, nearly $10 mm above their 2016 sold price.

This continues to show the dichotomy that is the Manhattan resale market. A recent report showed overall number of sales year over year is down but each week the $4 million and above apartments keep notching a steady amount of contracts. Interest rates rising, the recent tax reform and a very weak rental market are having a more pronounced effect on the lower end of the market than on the luxury sales. However, DOM continues to be at around 300 days for luxury and negotiation is the norm within the market of around 6% or so.

Read the full coverage

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

 

Current Manhattan residential market conditions

As days on the market increases for most residential real estate, the consensus is that the Manhattan residential market is in buyer’s market. New realities are setting in for sellers and not just in the luxury market but in all price ranges including starter homes. In 19 years of selling residential real estate, I have seen this cycle a few times already. The last time through, the market forces were accelerated by the financial crisis. This time around perhaps the winds behind the sails may be the tech bubble as well as the Tax Reforms and Jobs Act and rising interest rates.

But in any case, a buyer’s market tends to not last too long so while some buyers are waiting it out and deciding to rent instead, now maybe the time to make that purchase, knowing that finding the absolute perfect time to buy may be like trying to catch the bottom of the stock market. One thing is for sure is that with a little patience and good negotiation, a purchase now can lead to serious appreciation once the buyer’s market turns again into a seller’s market.

Also I think understanding that the Manhattan property values are not decreasing across all asset classes. Townhouses in Harlem continue to see steady sales and modest appreciation. Also, try finding a 6-12 family property for sale uptown with upside potential. There is very little for sale. In these markets both investors and end users are pouring in and there is a lack of inventory. Recently, I had a 8 family for sale at 313 W 138th street and there was a high level of interest and the property went to contract at over asking price within 1 month of listing.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Manhattan luxury residential market keeps momentum going

There were 26 contracts signed last week at $4 million and up according to the Olshan Realty’s weekly report. The most expensive was a co-op on Fifth avenue that was asking $20 million. This is an especially good week considering the recent snowstorms and that it was Easter week.

The Real Deal coverage