Despite the stagnant US housing sector, the residential property market in New York is booming.
With property prices and mortgage rates at historic lows, affluent New York residents are cashing in on the economic condition to purchase units at bargain values. Real estate agencies are reporting an increase in activity in private home sales in the past few months.
“Right now we are actually experiencing a pretty strong market… A lot of activity, a lot of signing contracts,” said Pamela Liebman, CEO of The Corcoran Group, the city’s largest residential real estate agency.
Meanwhile, Ariel Cohen, executive vice-president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that “this has been one of my best years.”
New York’s residential market was at the centre of the financial crisis that dragged the US economy into the recession in 2007. The sector has been struggling to get back from the price collapse that affected the entire country.
New York also felt the impact of the economic downturn, as apartment prices dropped 20 percent from their pre-crisis peak and an extremely low sales volume in 2008 and 2009.
However, while real estate prices are still at the same level, sales in the city have increased significantly compared to other US states. A study conducted by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) showed that the total value of homes sold increased 72 percent to US$7.6 billion (S$10.2 billion) in Q2 over the same period last year.