A Ray of Hope for the City’s Co-op and Condo Market

All is not gloom and doom in the world of New York City co-op and condo sales. While the coronavirus pandemic has walloped the market since March, the first week of June brought a ray of hope – with sales activity on the rise and a median price of $743,000, the highest of the year so far, according to a new report by PropertyShark.

The remainder of June will be closely watched, as the real estate sector will fully reopen when the city enters Phase Two, which could happen later this month. June 2019 saw surging sales activity as buyers and sellers rushed to close deals before the new mansion tax went into effect on July 1, 2019. As a result, 813 deals were registered in the first week of June 2019. By comparison, between June 1 and June 7 of the current year, 409 deals were recorded, representing a 50% year-over-year drop, but also a 48% week-over-week upsurge in sales activity. Indeed, the first week of June was the most active week in terms of transactional activity since late March, by a significant margin. Is this glass half-full or half-empty? Depends on your point of view.

Meanwhile, prices have been inching up throughout the crisis, and the median sale price in the city has remained steadily above the same period last year. Specifically, both March and April boasted a 5% year-over-year price expansion. May, too, recorded pricing increases throughout, with the exception of one week, which came in a mild 3% below year-ago figures and marked the first – and only – negative year-over-year price growth in 2020. Overall, May 2020 closed with a median sale price of $705,000, marking a 4% gain over May 2019. 

The first week of June’s median sale price of $743,000 was the highest figure so far this year, and it represented a 2% gain over year-ago figures, a notable achievement considering June 2019 featured the strongest pricing trends 2019.

All in all, the city has seen a total of 12,955 sales so far this year, 23% fewer than during the same period last year. Pricing trends, however, were positive, with the year-to-date median sale price across the four boroughs coming in at $685,000, for a 2% gain over the same period last year. And with the number of listings continuing to rise, this could turn out to be a surprisingly busy summer for the city’s co-op and condo sales market.