It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...2009

The New York City real-estate sales market shifted further in favor of buyers this November, particularly in Manhattan, according to StreetEasy’s November 2018 Market Reports. The average price of condos, co-ops, townhouses and single-family homes on the market dropped 3.3 percent from a year earlier to $1.1 million. That’s the sharpest year-on-year decline since the bad old days of February 2009 – when the rollercoaster started heading down – and it takes the price almost to the level of October 2015, effectively wiping out three years of gains in sale prices. One of the culprits, a glut of inventory, remained a factor. There are 18 percent more homes on the market now than this time last year, though inventory levels were down slightly from their October 2018 peak. 

With falling prices, the number of home sales rose slightly in Manhattan. There were 2.8 percent more homes sold in November than the same time last year, a cheering for prospective Manhattan sellers. The number of home sales rose by 10.5 percent in Queens and stagnated in Brooklyn, despite prices rising in both boroughs. The StreetEasy Price Index rose 1.6 percent in Brooklyn, to $713,729, and 4.8 percent in Queens, to $519,344. 

“The combination of a ton of new homes on the market and potential buyers holding out for better deals has shifted the market dynamic in Manhattan further in favor of buyers,” says StreetEasy senior economist Grant Long. “The modest increase in the number of sales should come as encouraging news to those looking to sell their homes, but it’s too early to tell whether this will be an enduring trend. The majority of sellers are still struggling to get their homes noticed.”