It's so bad, It's good

"It's so bad, It's good"

There are a thousand reasons to hold off on buying or selling right now. But to my new buyers and sellers I've met over the past few weeks, the opportunity is about being a smart contrarian.

The buyers looking now are REAL buyers - they have life changes that make it necessary to purchase
There are REAL sellers who need to sell. The sellers who don't took their properties off the market and rented them out

The market stalled in July with very few contracts signed but there has been price movement all across Manhattan & now even Brooklyn! For every new listing, two are reducing prices - having a search set up will provide immediate notifications when a listing might become in budget. This past week I saw a $75K reduction on a $1M property and $450K on a $6M property in my clients searches.

While buyers planning to finance are getting squeezed on the monthly mortgage payments in the short term...it is just that...short term! With rental prices continuing to increase, you can still get tax benefits from owning which help favor this option.

When rates go back down, there will be a lot more activity and competition.

If you are looking to carefully analyze your personal situation, I am here to help whether it's BUYING, SELLING or RENTING OUT your property.

5 Things NYC Agents Are Talking About

1. There are more appraisals coming in under the contract price - sellers and buyers need to have a strategy in place to get to the closing table!

2. Extremely low inventory means that when attractive, well-priced houses do come on the market, they are still finding buyers quickly - attractive meaning low maintenance, charm like exposed bricks/beams, washer/dryer in unit.

3. If volume is down 58% YOY for real estate agents, its down 75-80% for mortgage brokers.

4. In New York, home prices were generally down 2% compared to last year.

5. If a unit is for sale and was used as an investment property, (IE rented out from day 1) the seller is motivated to make a deal happen - rental prices are at their all time high so there is a specific reason they are selling! Finding those sellers are where the deals can happen.

Our First Family Trip!

In July, our family took to a trip to Calpe, a small fishing village in Spain! My family vacations there every year but I haven't been back in four years and this time was with two kids under 20 months.

It is two flights and a one hour drive from the Alicante airport - no simple feat! We took our babysitter with us to help increase our odds of successful travel and made it relatively smooth even after a flight delay, mechanical issues and missed connections!