Gridlock doesn’t just happen on New York’s streets. Sellers are holding firm to high asking prices, with the result that the number of homes for sale reached new highs in Brooklyn and Queens and jumped to near-highs in Manhattan, according to StreetEasy’s Market Reports for the third quarter of 2019 .
“Most sellers are still refusing to bow to the buckling market, causing would-be buyers to turn to the rental market, where they are finding a lot to like,” says Grant Long, StreetEasy senior economist. “Until sellers recognize that prices are not what they once were, those with the means to buy will continue to play the waiting game from the comfort of their rental. With job growth in the city continuing to support demand for homes, we expect to see an unusually competitive winter in the rental market, including likely record rates of rent growth.”
The increase in for-sale inventory also means greater competition among home sellers. But those sellers are not responding with more price cuts: the share of listings with a price cut remained unchanged from last year, the report said. In Manhattan, just 23.7% of sellers offered a discount, its lowest level of the year. The share of price cuts offered in Brooklyn rose just one percentage point to 22.3%, and remained about the same in Queens, at 19.3%.
Nor are sellers willing to meet buyer demand with deeper discounts. The median size of price cuts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens remained unchanged since last year, at 5.3%, 5.1%, and 4.3%, respectively.
Still further signs of a lagging sales market can be seen in price growth. In Manhattan, the StreetEasy Price Index fell 4.4% to $1,093,562 — its lowest level since 2015. In Brooklyn and Queens, price growth was essentially flat. These figures, calculated using data on home sales that closed, show that the sellers who priced their homes at
