Habitually, we take stock of the residential market on the first of each month, but the ides of May bring us a bubbly new residential sales report—this from the fine folks at the Real Estate Board of New York—showing steadily rising prices. (To wit, average sale prices hit $745,000 in the first quarter, up from $605,000 for the same period in '06, while median sales price also climbed 20%, to $450,000.) Sez REBNY's Steve Spinola, "Prices aren’t coming down. Nobody’s panicking despite what the press may say about a declining market."
Phew—good to know! For the heck of it, consider the above graphic, created by Citi-Habitats broker Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs. His open house heat report from last weekend: "I browsed 3 open houses, mostly in the Murray Hill area, with some buyer clients of mine and noticed that all of them had pretty active attendance while we were there. Not only that, but the open house for my exclusive at 205 E 78th had about 13 people show up. Not bad for Mother's Day holiday! While I still believe we are in the midst of a transition from a seller's market to more of a buyers market, right now I would have to say we are still closer to a housing market that favors sellers."
So the industry likes this market. And you, faithful sellers or buyers?
· Market Report: Active Transition [UrbanDigs]
· NYC Apartment Sales Prices Surge [Crains]