City's apartment market won't be cooling anytime soon.Prospective apartment buyers who may be holding back, hoping that the roaring residential marketplace in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of will cool off and prices come down, are likely to run out of patience. There is no indication at all that the frenetic pace of the current market will slacken slack·en tr. & intr.v. slack·ened, slack·en·ing, slack·ens 1. To make or become slower; slow down: The runners slackened their pace. Air speed slackened. 2. , despite a blip in July. An unbelievably busy spring for coop COOP See Banks for Cooperatives (COOP). and condo sales carried over into the first part of summer. Then, in July, there was a slowdown, as compared to July of last year, largely because of swings in the stock market that concerned people. But then the market picked up sharply in August and has been soaring since then. This is a seller's market where supply is scant in the face of huge demand, with the condo market in particular coming to the fore. Apartment rents are too high and getting higher. This is translating into more sales of apartments. Once you cross a certain rental threshold -- say, $2,000 a month or more for studios and upwards of $3,000 a month for one-bedrooms -- people begin to realize it makes more sense to buy an apartment. In this context, one of the factors that is fueling the condo market is that one can be financed with only 10 percent down, as compared to coops where the minimum is 25 percent down and the average is 50 percent. I would caution both buyers and sellers in this market to be realistic about their expectations. Compromises are much more common in this market, balancing reality against wishful thinking wishful thinking Psychology Dereitic thought that a thing or event should have a specified outcome . Although apartment sellers are now getting their asking prices or close to asking, some owners enter the real estate transaction process unrealistically hoping they'll get into a bidding war and end up getting above their asking price. Similarly, buyers may have to compromise on acquiring the apartment of their dreams at the price they want to pay, and settle for less than what they hoped for. Just because apartments are in such demand, very few financial contingency contracts are being negotiated with transactions now. In this market they are unnecessary because the seller calls the shots and can choose from numerous prospective buyers. The major factor keeping supply down in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. is that by and large the city is well developed from the real estate standpoint. There are no hot new neighborhoods in Manhattan -- all of Manhattan is hot! Development is already well underway in such hitherto fringe areas as Alphabet City in the far East Village, and prices are climbing in Clinton. That is not to say that good space for reasonable prices cannot be found by the careful shopper. For example, I think Murray Hill Murray Hill may refer to one of the following places:
A stock or other security that is trading below its true value. Notes: The difficulty is knowing what the "true" value actually is. Analysts will usually recommend an undervalued stock with a strong buy rating. and has a lot going for it, with more potential there for the rental market than for ownership. I think people tend to overlook Murray Hill and Gramercy Park Gramercy Park (sometimes misspelled as Grammercy) is a small, fenced-in private park in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York State[1]. . |
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