- Many buyers are feeling anxious, preferring to decelerate their search and wait it out for more clarity.
- Some potential sellers, too, are debating listing later – once there is more clarity for buyers to have full confidence.
- Existing sellers are showing signs of negotiability. It's been a few years of debating whether to list, amidst so much market upheaval, booms, and lulls.
- Some buyers, with accepted offers or in contract negotiation, are using the turn of events to opportunistically massage terms or even pricing in their favor.
- Savvy investors are readying their cash and scouring for the right property to pounce on.
As we chronicled repeatedly over the last three years of market ebbs and flows, it's these precise moments when the best deals are made. It's our unwavering belief that the most lucrative investments are often made when others are too afraid to make the first move, as we witnessed first-hand over many cycles, and especially over the last 3 rocky years.
While market experts are pointing to "continued” promising signs in the labor market and that rate increases might be beginning to taper off, they are equally hedging that the worst may still to come. Amidst all this noise and turbulence, we’re noticing the following in our segment of the economy:
- Inventory as of mid-March remains at historic lows, some 40% undersupplied to pre-covid levels
- Last week’s luxury market saw the most contracts signed this year, the largest since May 2022 just as the market began to soften.
- The pace of contracts signed for new developments is now higher than the pre-pandemic 2015-2019 average for the 7th consecutive week.
- Negotiability on contracts signed is hovering around 15%.
- Pricing today – after an 18 month spike – is on average pari-passu to 2015 levels, nearly a decade ago.
- Said different, many sellers who purchased in the 2015-2018 wave, are today, fortunate to accept a number that breaks even.
Putting aside the larger, global and macroeconomic questions about what happens next, one thing for sure is that: the time couldn’t be more ripe for scooping up deals in the NYC luxury market.
