2/3 New York City Renting!

Surprising NYC Facts

Nearly two-thirds of residents in the New York City area live in rent-occupied units, according to the New York City Department of City Planning. This number is more amazing when you consider the average New York rent is around 82% of the median American salary.  The number of people renting housing units in New York alone is more than twice the national average. Two thirds of New York’s 8.5 million residents is still larger than all the 4 million residents in Los Angeles, America’s second biggest city.

In spite of the high number of New York renters, Manhattan homes are on the market longer than you might expect, on average 117 days.  CNBC reports a 3 percent drop in Manhattan sales, though other real estate in NYC has rebounded from its 2018 slowdown.  Lagging Manhattan sales could stem from a lack of foreign buyers for the oversupplied high end apartments, combined with the new “mansion tax” levied in New York.


Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels

New York city in 2018 faced the worst year for real estate sales since the financial crisis, but the first quarter of 2019 saw a real estate market awakening in NYC Burroughs other than Manhattan.  Price reductions disappeared, and sellers held out until buyers became aware of the new market conditions.  Though the New York city area real estate sales take longer to consummate, most of the price reductions, like those seen in 2018, are gone.   

So why are so many residents renting?  The population of the greater New York City area is constantly increasing.  There may a large outflow of residents, but there is also a consistently growing inflow of residents.  Real Estate professionals like Frederick Peters note that NYC real estate trends do not necessarily follow the rest of the country.  As the New York City Department of City Planning informs us, if the real population changes showed on its graphs, you would see a constantly revolving group of people, and then a growing group of permanent New Yorkers.  There may be so many renters because residents cannot afford to buy or because residents are not sure they wish to stay in NYC.

The Rest of the Country:

If you are trying to figure out whether to sell your home now or in 2020, MSN notes many realtors expect the next recession to occur by or in 2020, so selling now may be a very good option.  If you are looking to buy your next home, prices are currently reasonable, but may drop by this time next year.  As Always, we wish you good home hunting.

#realestate #NewYork #nexthome #realtor #resourceshark