The Market Report: June 2023

Summer Shopping

After our unofficial summer kickoff with Memorial Day festivities this week, it's now weekends away, and beaches and spritzers for a lot of New Yorkers. For the eager or newly eager property buyer, this summer season offers some benefits to sticking out the hunt to find the right place. This past month, property inventory ticked up slightly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But this upcoming month we are likely to see some skimming of the buyer pool.

If other buyers are taking weekends away or mental and emotional breaks from the hunt, it's an opportune time to go against the grain. Shop when there is less competition. Traditionally new spring inventory exceeds summer inventory, but that doesn't mean good properties don't come to market in the summer. Likewise, properties that may have come to market with aspirational pricing in the late winter or spring, may have price adjustments now after months without results.

Many sellers who bring properties on the market in the summer also went into contract on their own purchases in the spring. They needed to find the right place to buy, went to contract on a new home, and now need to sell their current place. Regardless of whether they need to sell in order to buy, carrying the monthlies on multiple properties isn't desirable. That doesn't mean it's the norm, but there may be opportunity to find negotiability.

Similarly, properties that are on the market in the summer may have sellers who are reaching some exhaustion from months on the market. Months of sprucing the place up for showings every other day, hauling kids' toys to storage, blocking time out of the home while also trying to work from home, or on the flip side, the emotional fallout of too few showing appointments can all take their toll. Sometimes the price expectations aren't currently translating to the property's condition as it stands against others on the market. Negotiability currently isn't steep, but there could be a win-win if the negotiability provides the chance to finally get the property off the market and get some funds to renovate the unattractive kitchen or bath that may have been hindering the sale.

Summer months can also be uncomfortable to see some properties and can impact buyers' overall perspective, particularly under-construction, dirty, dusty, hot new developments and pre-war or vacant apartments without well managed AC, as examples. Too many buyers get stifled by details and emotional reactions that they don't take the opportunity to temper. Try to see the forest through the trees.

As the summer months close and we approach fall, a back-to-school mentality kicks in; new buyers emerge in the fall with all their end-of-year goals and newfound determination. Inventory may tick up again, but traditionally, so does new increased competition.

If it's time to house hunt, maybe this summer you focus on the purchase, and get your beach time someplace tropical this fall or early winter after you close on your new place and settle in.

Please reach out with any thoughts on buying or selling this season. Have a great start to your summer!