Prospective Buyer's Sentiment

Im enjoying the whole process. Its fun trying to figure out which way things are headed. If I'm right Im gonna save a ton of cash, if im worong I gotta pay current prices. I have no problems waiting

Went to one OH this weekend in Brooklyn and we were the only people there. It was a 2 bedroom. However, it was raining pretty hard so I assume that kept traffic down.

can you even sell an apartment without a refrigerator?
i thought there was a law against that.

went to two OHs this weekend. First one, broker didn't show and didn't return phone calls. I've had this happen twice in the past month. Other OH had quite a few people. Still think prices are crazy, but what do I know.

Attended one open house this weekend in Brooklyn .. desirable neighborhood, place had a parking space you could supposedly deed for 50K .. but the bottom line was they were asking $550,000 grand for a high-ceiling dump, poorly appointed, and directly off the BQE.

There's a rather large discrepancy out there between what landlords are waking up to in lowered rent, and what owners expect to get from a potential buyer. I'll keep an eye on the one place I looked at, and if they get anything close to the asking price within a few months I'll know to lower my expectations. Sure, it's New York City .. but whatever's going on out there, it doesn't seem in line with the times.

I went to 4 open houses on Sunday in Brooklyn. 3 were mobbed (1 had 40 names after an hour and a half of OH!), 1 not so much. The first 3 were the almost perfectly to perfectly renovated, the last was underwhelming Home Depot style.
The prices are probably 10-20% below peak, but still twice what they were 5-6 years ago. I find it hard to pull the trigger.

It sounds like most people who currently rent and are looking to buy (and not desperate to move/buy) have a clear number in their mind of what they think is a fair price. There seems to be an overwhelming sentiment that asking prices are a good 20-30% above that number. (at least that's how I feel and what I've taken from a lot of posters on SE) Maybe I'm completely off here, but I just feel like many sellers (and their brokers) are completely out of their minds right now.

Essentially what I'm hoping to figure out from this is whether or not foot traffic will = offers and sales close to absurd asking prices. If so, I may be very quickly get over the urge to own manhattan real estate and so long as I live in this city, be a happy renter.

@maly; 40 in an hour? Maybe this was a continuation of last weeks lookers....

NYC - the number of days property stays on the market without selling is a much more telling sign than the amount of foot traffic at an open house. I'd also be interested in knowing how much making a cash offer would motivate a particular seller to lower asking price.

NYC10007 you have just described my husband and my lives!!!!!!! Renters, don't need to buy, would like to buy, have cash, and think properties are 20-30% over what they should be. Good to know we're in the boat alone!

We're not even going to open houses anymore until we see a real reduction in asking prices. With such limited inventory, we're not willing to compete with other potential buyers for subpar apartments.

Keith, I checked: all the pages had 1/17 on top, different handwriting, same ink. The house was really lovely, magnificent bones, if oddly decorated. The current broker raised the price by 21% when he took over from a smaller broker (listing wasn't on Streeteasy then, but I found out after talking to a local contact after the OH.)
I am uneasy committing, but if I fell in love or if rents start going back up, I may jump.

We went to 2 open houses on Sunday, both 2 bed/2 baths in unattractive brick doorman buildings over on 1st Ave in the E70s. The smaller one, ~1100 sq ft, was nicely renovated, average light. The larger one, ~1300 sq ft, needed a ton of work and dark. Asking prices 825-850k with high maint - seems rediculous to me. But considerable foot traffic in pouring rain. rlmnyc, i think you have the right idea.

maly, rent is not going up for SURE. :) good news to all of us.

I'm old enough to have seen rents and prices go up, down, up and down again. One thing I've noticed is that rents are much more plastic than prices, they go up and down much faster. We're one little recovery away from galloping rents, time horizon to be determined.

I'm both going to try to sell my coop, and hoping to buy a house or condo - both in Park Slope. As a buyer, I haven't seen much yet that is right for us. We haven't seen a lot of people at open houses; they seem very slow to me.There doesn't seem to be a lot of good options out there, but I hope that changes as spring comes. As a seller I'm having a hard time pricing my property. Prices are all over the place and finding good comps has been hard. I want to price low enough to attract buyers and still have a shot of breaking even with what I paid.