The lower prices and negative psychology that dominated the New York City real estate market last year went “poof!” last month as the bonus-rich and others showed a renewed appetite for residential properties of all shapes and asking prices. Overall, both prices and the number of signed contracts rose more than 10% year-over-year in January. [Buyers'] psychology has changed, said Frederick W. Peters, the president of the Warburg Realty Partnership. For almost two years, they’ve been scared that the market would plummet and they’d end up like fools who paid too much. Steven L. James, director of Manhattan sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman, calls it a “cautious exuberance.” One example: A park slope brownstone asking $2,475,000 that sold in a day. And in a further sign of strength, there is lots of demand for apartments and houses at all points in the price spectrum, not just the high end, according to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel.
Housing Market Heats Up Again in New York City [NY Times]
Photo by John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times