Luxury brokers see flurry of activity in response to Wall Street bonus buzz

The return of Wall Street bonuses, albeit largely in stock form, is proving a boon to the lower end of the luxury market, brokers say. After a year of going without, financiers who have bonuses coming to them once again are now looking to take advantage of a perceived trough in the real estate market — and quickly. “People are hearing about bonus money and think they’re going to miss out,” said Michele Kleier of boutique brokerage Gumley Haft Kleier, who said she received a flurry of calls in response to her high-end listings last week. Other luxury brokers experienced similar surges, an unusual event for what is typically a “quite sleepy” January market, said Stribling’s Kirk Henckels. Buyers in the $2 million to $3 million range are particularly active, with Manhattan contracts between $1.5 million and $5 million up 171 percent for the month that ended Jan. 15 over the year-ago period, according to Streeteasy.com. [NY Mag]