Warburg Realty’s Q1 2020 Market Report, written by CEO Frederick Warburg Peter, is hot off the press. Peters begins his New York real estate market analysis by stating, “In my 20 years of writing quarterly market reports, no quarter has ever resembled this one!”
Some of the report highlights include:
- New York’s real estate market began 2020 with an unusually strong January and February, luring buyers back into the marketplace.
- By the time the Governor urged New Yorkers to stay at home on March 20, almost all real estate activity in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens had already ceased.
- New real estate deals have ground to a halt.
- While some contracts are still being signed, no showings take place in the city and buyers will not commit a million dollars or more for a property they have not seen.
- If past crises are any guide, prices will fall but demand will be strong when the crisis begins to lift and people feel safe going about their lives again.
- Buyers and sellers face challenges, such as co-op and condo buildings not giving access to appraisers or movers, participants at closings not wanting to sit in the same room, the issuance of new deeds and stock certificates requiring input from management staffers who are not in the office, and recording offices being minimally staffed.
Peters concluded, “Experiences like this one test our markets, but they also test our mettle. We will emerge from this crisis stronger and better equipped for the future. Certainty will return and with it a desire to see our lives move on. We will need new clothes, new restaurants, new homes. Life as we know it always returns, different and yet, for most of us, substantially the same.”
You can view the entire report here.
