Open House Picks: Six Months Later

if manhattan prices crap out as much as those recent headlines, 1M+ houses will be a lot tougher to sell. Have to assume a good chunk of people in past yrs bought the nicer aptmts / houses in BK with big profits from selling Manhattan apt. Many view those profits as “play $$$” (ie the easy come easy go type) and more willing to part with it on a bigger purchase. To ask someone to cough up their hard earned $$$ (ie via work) to buy at these prices, it’s a tougher decision.

Still believe there are a lot of people in NYC who can afford these prices but I question how many of them are WILLING to pay these prices. Anyone who HAS to sell soon expensive ppty are in trouble (ie brace for 20% price cuts; bigger if they hold out longer)

Anyone have a link to the current listing for the Carroll Gardens place?

Many of the recent condo sales I have looked up on ACRIS have been financed with a fixed-to-floating ARM product (fixed rate for something like first 5 or 7 years and floating after that). I have not looked at the papers for recent brownstone purchases in Brooklyn but without the benefit of any of my own research I have been led to believe that the same product has become pretty popular among high earners in the NYC finance world buying all kinds of properties. When I call mortgage providers/brokers and tell them I am only interested in 30-year fixed products they seem genuinely surprised. Perhaps Adam Dahill can give us some thoughts.

ARMs are not necessarily a bad for all people. They are just fine for a certain portion of the population. The problem is that people like to convince themselves that they are in the minority even though most aren’t (sort of like how almost everyone’s kids are above average). It’s easy to convince yourself you are financially sophisticated if the immediate result is lower monthly payments (for now). I know a lot of people with ARMs and can’t think of a single one of them I consider financially savvy enough to have that product.

With properties like these that have sat on the market for 6 months with no price reduction, you have to wonder about the rationality and motivation of the sellers. Apparently they are not in a rush to sell, maybe thay don’t even want or need to sell but are just phishing for offers.

What we don’t know is what size offers, if any, have they turned down???