Welcome to the New York housing slump

The long-awaited slump in New York’s housing market has arrived.

Home prices are heading down in the city itself and in its suburbs, according to Bloomberg. Buyers are pulling back thanks to years of price increases, the new federal cap on state and local property tax deductions and an increase in mortgage rates.

Home sales are dropping throughout the country, and the appreciation rate is especially falling around New York. Prices across the country rose 4.8 percent in the third quarter compared to last year, while they rose just 4 percent in the 12 counties including and surrounding New York City, statistics from Attom Data Solutions show.

In Westchester County, single-family home sales fell for a fifth straight quarter. Purchases also fell in the Long Island suburbs and in Bergen County, New Jersey, which experienced a 6 percent drop.

Buyers have started to push back on high property taxes, often asking if owners have appealed their tax bills with the county or seeing if they can rent their future homes before buying them.

Agents close to Manhattan are feeling a palpable slowdown, and Halstead broker Sharon Shahinian told Bloomberg that sellers need to be realistic about what prices they can expect to get.

“It’s a great time for buyers, so it’s not all doom and gloom,” Shahinian said. “But you have to manage sellers’ expectations that what they could have gotten two years ago, a year and a half ago, they can’t get now.” [Bloomberg] – Eddie Small