NYC home sales slowdown coming in 2022, Brown Harris Stevens CEO says

Bess Freedman cited higher interest rates, diminishing supply

Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman (Brown Harris Stevens, iStock)
Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman (Brown Harris Stevens, iStock)

After 2021 marked a banner year for housing markets inManhattan and Brooklyn, New York City home sales could slow in 2022, BHS CEO Bess Freedman said.

Freedman told Bloomberg TV’s Surveillance that higher interest rates and housing supply woes could spur the change of pace among the city’s sales.

“The Fed announced that rates will go up maybe two to three times next year, so we may see a little bit of a slowdown,” Freedman said to Bloomberg. “Also, supply has diminished because demand is so heightened.”

The brokerage leader’s prediction mirrors similar projections from Jonathan Miller, who compiled a November market report for Miller Samuel on behalf of Douglas Elliman.

“Inventory is continuing to collapse, and that’s why we anticipate continued price growth into the new year,” Miller told The Real Deal.

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Real estate data from UrbanDigs published earlier this month said that through Dec. 5, listings in Manhattan exceeded the 2008-2018 average by 18 percent. But buyers exhausted supply at an even faster rate, putting net new inventory below zero for nine of 11 months this year. Net new inventory in November was negative 861 units.

Meanwhile, UrbanDigs noted that listing discounts fell consistently throughout the year for the first time since mid-2015. Prices rose in tandem, helping lead to a banner year for the Manhattan’s luxury market.

Supply and demand issues across the country have spurred the housing market along. A report from Redfin showed the number of homes on the United States market hit a historic low during the week ending Nov. 28. There were fewer than 539,000 active listings that week, a 26 percent decline year-over-year.

Strong demand and weak supply resulted in a median sale price of $360,375 across the U.S. for the first four weeks of November, surpassing a record dating back to July 25.

[Bloomberg] — Holden Walter-Warner