This month’s video is about kids. While we marvel at the comeback of the New York City housing market, it still isn’t firing on all cylinders!
Why is that?
It’s because kids aren’t all vaccinated. While I write about the strength of the market it more detail in other posts this month, what has leapt out for me is really how much kids drive the market.
Per the fair housing laws of New York State, we can’t advertise “kid friendly” apartments, we can’t talk about “family friendly” places. The idea is that people without kids shouldn’t feel discriminated against. Though, historically, it’s been the opposite- that landlords didn’t want to rent to people with too many kids, given the harder wear and tear…
Regardless, kids not only play an outsized role in real estate decisions. Children underpin the entire civilization! As it relates to things getting back to normal, it has everything to do with every child getting vaccinated. It’s about getting workers back to work who no longer fear the need for childcare if they go to work. Once their children are vaccinated, they can rest a bit more easy, knowing that their kids will be at school. It is also parents having the ability to make intelligent decisions about their real estate, where their kids will be at school, just feeling settled that things can become more normal with play dates, community, and the social glue that holds that community together.
Or it’s about grandparents who know where their grandkids will live, so the grandparents can sell their home in the suburbs and move in. It’s about culture fully returning and everyone getting to enjoy it, the basics that drive decisions to be in one city or another.
For New York, children and their health and re-integration into society is a massive issue today. But in a week or two, when we expect vaccination permission to be granted, this could begin in earnest.
What takes our market from Great to Insanely Great? Kid vaccines. Let’s see how the next few weeks prove that out!
-Scott