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Manhattan sellers may find the holidays busier than usual

By Brick Underground  | December 21, 2020 - 1:00PM
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A new report for Manhattan from UrbanDigs finds the number of sales contracts increased again for the third week in a row.

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Manhattan’s sales and rental markets are making up for the pandemic slowdown with some frenzied activity in the waning days of 2020.

According to UrbanDigs’ latest weekly report for the second week of December, Manhattan’s sales and leasing activity is picking up and remains elevated over the same week in 2019, an indication that pent-up demand is being released.

The report finds the number of new sales contracts increased again for the third week in a row. The number of deals, 238, is a 26 percent increase over the same week last year. In fact, the report finds the number of contracts signed for fall 2020 has already eclipsed fall 2019.

“Deal activity is increasing into the holiday season, suggesting that the typically quiet weeks of late December and early January may be unexpectedly busy,” says John Walkup, COO of UrbanDigs and author of the report.

New listings continued to fall in anticipation of the upcoming holidays. A rebound in inventory is expected in the new year, the report says.

In the Manhattan rental market, new signed leases increased 16 percent over the previous week. Walkup says this suggests that renters are looking for deals in the normally quiet late fall. The number of new rental listings dropped, and landlords may opt to hold some listings back for the more robust spring season, Walkup notes.

“This will most likely result in erratic near-term activity, more representative of individual landlords’ portfolios rather than the overall market,” he says.

 

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