Opinion Poll

maybe but it certainly leads to less job security unless you are in bankruptcy law or own a few gas stations.

Not trying to be a wiseass here, but the OHs I've been to recently and the others that have been reported here - not to mention the huge drop-off in reports - have been mostly dead, so how would one know the difference? If 3 people show instead of 4, is it a bad week of financial news or the current state of business as usual?

That said, I would expect it to have some kind of a negative impact, just not sure how much at this point.

bad economoic news it shouldn't slow turnout, it should slow bids.

economic worries will turn some of the current shoppers into fence-sitters, but they'll still window-shop if the weather is nice.

However, the weather is not going to be nice; it's going to be in the mid-90s. So that means a low turnout as shoppers head for the beach.

On the plus side for agents, anyone who is hitting open houses on a sticky Sunday is going to be a fairly interested client.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Ali...or someone who has nothing better to do because they cannot afford a summer house or their high electric bill, so will enjoy some free a/c time at open houses

front_porch- I can predict very low turnout this weekend it has nothing to about the economy or money at all.

Guess why Sunday will see almost no activity.

I find open house attendance a very spotty indicator of the market. All winter tons of people milled about the 70 open houses I attended and yet bids were few and far between with properties sitting for relatively long times. I continue to see the GV market as flatlining for the past 3 weeks more than at any time in the past 7 months. New inventory is non-existent and few are going into contract. There is certainly no ticking up of pricing and those who insisted prices are still increasing when setting sales prices have been duly spanked by the market. See, e.g., http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/226908-coop-20-east-9th-street-greenwich-village-manhattan which listed with Beth Chase Realty for a month at $1.350.00 and went no where while she insisted the market was going to just snatch the place up at what would be a record price in the building for a low floor unit; it got no offers anywhere near asking. Now, that unit is sitting with Corcoran at $50K less and still apparently not inspiring a bidding war. Or see the bizarre price history of http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/134264-coop-4-lexington-avenue-gramercy-park-new-york -- an apartment the brokers have seemed clueless about in assessing its value in the current market.

On the other hand, prime GV real estate that is more conservatively priced (not marked up 5 or 10% over last year, but on a par with 2007 prices or even a bit shy of those prices) still goes to contract quickly.

I think this segment of the market is instructive. The neighborhood is prime, the buildings very good to excellent and the values hold here as much as anywhere. Yet, even in this segment things are more or less deadlocked.

So will open houses be busy or not this weekend? I have no idea. Maybe a sunny hot day will make people want to walk around browsing. But with the DOW down 400 today and nothing happening to mark clear directions in the credit markets or real estate market, I don't think buyers are in any mood to be making bids that sellers will find of any interest yet. If inventory starts building again as we enter and move through summer, I suspect sellers will soften somewhat or the logjam will just continue into fall since the economy ain't doing nothing great and nothing suggests buyers flush with cash to spend will suddenly arrive. Inventory shot up during the spring from 5000-ish to almost 8000 now. It's been flat for a couple of weeks. Let's see where it goes now.... That will be a better predictor than open house traffic.

Ok- Here is the reason there will be no or very little open house traffic.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=82413