Despite the rain, cold and dreary weather open houses were mobbed this week on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Buyers are entering the market and they are buying. One pre-war 2 bedroom condo priced at $1,399,000 had about 40 people just 15 minutes after it opened.
About 30 people were at the 2 bedroom 2 bath apartments on the third floor of a post-war full service luxury building. One 2 bedroom condo that came on the market the beginning of the week at $1,150,00 is already in contract and the second open house was canceled. Many realtors planning on taking buyers back to see popular homes for a second time are too late. There is very little inventory in the $1M to $1.4M range.
What does it mean? Is it the Wall Street bonuses? Have we bottomed? Last weeks sell off in the stock market? Is New York the last market to decline the first to recover? We haven't had many foreclosures or sub-prime mortgages. The collapse of Lehman Brothers was what caused our market to decline. Prices are still down from a year ago but there is sales activity.
It's not about tax credits in this price range. Even first-time buyers looking at $1M+ apartments tend to have higher incomes than $125,000 single or $250,000 combined. The $6000 tax credit for current home owners is capped at an $800,000 purchase.
While there are all kinds of reports and gloomy economic studies, high unemployment and a poor national economy, we have to be honest about what we see. There are a lot of people with a lot of money buying real estate in Manhattan.
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