Spring has finally sprung, but the cold weather remains in New York City. It was a bone chilling month in the markets and worries over the US & global economy are persistent.
Inflation worries have been rattling the US stock market as the Federal Reserve prepares for their second rate hike of 2022. Investors expect a 50 basis point rate hike at the next Fed meeting, which will have a serious impact on the global markets. This should help get inflation under control, but could hurt demand for real estate as mortgage rates continue to rise.
Despite increasing mortgage rates, real estate in New York City continues to perform well. Many people are beginning to realize that NYC is really a market like no other. The LivNY team had a great month. Our team has multiple properties on the market and a lot of contracts waiting to close. It’s been a very exciting start to the spring selling season, with no signs of slowing. The rental market is even crazier. We put a few rental apartments on the market this month and they rented within a day at the highest prices ever for these units. There is no shortage of demand, but there is a shortage of rental apartments.
Unprecedented rental demand is the talk of the town, along with rental rate increases. Tenants are receiving rent renewal options that are significantly higher than they expected. The New York Times reported an annual rent increase of over 33% which has forced many people to live with roommates. In other news, the commercial office space market is showing signs of life as Microsoft signed a huge deal for 150k square feet in Flatiron. Lastly, on Tuesday our new Mayor, Eric Adams, unveiled an ambitious budget increase to $99.7 billion. Yes, billion with a B.
The spotlight this month is on co-operative apartments. The majority of real estate in New York City are co-op buildings. As we wait for co-op board approval on a few of our apartments it seemed like a good time to review New York City co-operatives.
