I thought 2023 would go down as the most challenging real estate market I had ever seen.
But it was also our best year as a team.
Then 2024 decided to give 2023 a run for its money. There have been a lot of reasons why people have the impression—or misimpression, as you’ll see—that this isn’t a good year to buy or perhaps sell:
- Stubbornly high mortgage rates
- Stubbornly high cost of renovation
- Stubbornly low inventory
- Stubborn sellers
- Stubborn lowballing buyers
It turns out that all of that can be true, and a whole host of other contradictory things can be true simultaneously:
- Buyers find sellers willing to play ball
- Sellers find buyers ready to bid up on good properties
- Mortgage rates that are pretty decent through private wealth management relationships
- Enough inventory in Manhattan to go around
- Buyers excited to take on projects, too
What do I make of all this?
I realized that the sun is shining in New York, and there’s always “hay to make.” That is, whether you think the market is bad or good, you’re right. That’s because:
- New York City is a high-volume real estate market
- New York City is a high-volume market no matter what is going on in the news
- A market like this has sellers that want to sell, and buyers that want to buy, period
- A market like this has sellers for whom their property is not their biggest asset. Even if they lose a little money from the sale, they can make it up by putting that money to work.
- Buyers want to be here. And renters want to stay here.
The outcome of simply deciding we were going to be the optimistic agents, ready to get things done? We did more business in the first five months of the year this year, more than we did in all of 2023, which was our best year.
Our Takeaways for You?
It turns out that the year is what you make of it. If you want to find a great deal to buy, we can make it happen. If you want to get a great price on your property, we will find a qualified buyer. It’s more about creating a vision together of what you want to achieve, and figuring out step-by-step.
That’s how you get things done. -Scott & the HRT