More breathing room for buyers? Increase in listings calms frenzied NYC sales market

The frenzied pace of the New York City sales market is calming down, a result of more listings on the market and slowing demand. With less competition, buyers have gained some breathing room—they can take a day or two to make an offer—something not possible in recent months.

It’s not exactly a swing from a seller’s to a buyer’s market, at least not yet—it’s more like a nudge. That slight momentum may be enough to open a “window of opportunity” this summer as John Walkup, co-founder of UrbanDigs says in a recent blog post. You can expect a slower pace to return this summer, when market usually takes a pause for vacations. (Unlike last summer, when third quarter Manhattan sales saw the highest quarterly total in more than 32 years.)

Walkup says. “The number of new listings coming to market each month minus units signed into contract or taken off the market—is on track to notch three positive months in a row for the first time since the reopening post-Covid,” he writes.

In real terms, that means buyers have more choice. “Instead of seeing one or two possible listings popping up in their feeds each week, they might now see a handful,” he says.

Another real estate report also tracks this shift in the market. In the latest edition of the Elliman Report, Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the author of the report, notes that new signed contracts for Manhattan co-ops, condos, and one-to-three-family houses has slipped year over year in four out of the past five months—a lack of listings has been to blame, up until now. With the May report, Miller notes, "the rise in mortgage rates in recent months has enabled a year-over-year addition of new listings to the market in May.”

Frederick Warburg Peters, president of Coldwell Banker Warburg, sees buyers gaining some negotiating advantage. “The pace of the market, throughout all price ranges, has slowed significantly in the second quarter,” he says, and with spring listings, there are more properties for sale than at any time in the past year and a half. “So buyers have more to look at, and with the larger inventory of options, there are more opportunities to negotiate,” he says. But those discounts may not offset the higher cost of borrowing and declines in the stock market portfolios, he says. You can read more here.