A Little Heat in the Cold Posted on January 16th, 2009 by Frederick Peters Since January 2, as temperatures have plummeted in the metropolitan area, more New Yorkers have piled on their outerwear and attended week-end Open Houses. The market, which has been functioning at quarter speed since mid-September, is thawing slightly, even amidst the doom and gloom of the current economic picture. Not... [more]
A Little Heat in the Cold
Posted on January 16th, 2009 by Frederick Peters
Since January 2, as temperatures have plummeted in the metropolitan area, more New Yorkers have piled on their outerwear and attended week-end Open Houses. The market, which has been functioning at quarter speed since mid-September, is thawing slightly, even amidst the doom and gloom of the current economic picture. Not only have more prospective purchasers been attending open Houses, some are even making offers!
Now I am not suggesting the market is booming. But many of Warburg’s exclusives have received offers in the past two weeks, and not such bad offers either. Of course, the meaning of “not so bad” has changed completely in the last year. “Not so bad” no longer means the buyer is offering the asking price. These days it means that the offer is coming in within 20% to 25% of the asking price, which already has to reflect the seller’s adaptation to the new realities if it is to generate any offers at all. And then the negotiating begins.
Another interesting fact: throughout the fall, the offers being received and deals being made were almost exclusively for units worth $1,500,000 or less. Now there seems to be interest in family apartments again. The larger two bedroom and three bedroom units are getting Open House attention and offers. These buyers seem to be taking the first steps towards appreciating that if you are buying for so much less than you would have paid a year ago, maybe that’s enough. You never know where the bottom is, they seem to be thinking, but this doesn’t look so bad.
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