Some Manhattanites are beginning to put their homes up for sale.
A report by data firm UrbanDigs shows that 82 new listings appeared last week, a 39 percent increase from the prior week’s 59.
It’s the first time since a sweeping statewide shutdown in late March that listing inventory has increased week-over-week.
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To be sure, the Manhattan residential market is far from back to normal. During the same period last year, 506 homes were listed.
But Noah Rosenblatt, UrbanDigs’ founder and author of the report, is optimistic. He said the week-over-week increase in listing inventory “hints that as sellers return to the market, buyers will follow.”
“Typically, in active markets, the first action is on the supply side, then deal flow follows as buyers sign contracts,” he said in a statement. “While any information on price action will be delayed by several months, the markets may finally be able to interpret direction using real-time indicators of supply and demand.”
UrbanDigs has been producing weekly reports on Manhattan’s sales market since the governor’s shutdown of non-essential workplaces and home showings. Its reports revealed sharp drops in listing inventory and hundreds of properties pulled off the market. Last week, however, delisting volume returned to normal.
The number of homes taken offline, 161, was only one more than during the same week last year.
In prior weeks, Rosenblatt said the lower numbers of homes taken off the market was an indication that sellers inclined to pull their listings because of the pandemic had already done so.
Contract activity in the borough remains dismal. Only 40 contracts were signed last week, down 10 percent from the prior week and 84 percent from the year-ago period, when 254 contracts were signed.
Of those contracts, only one was recorded in Olshan Realty’s weekly report of Manhattan contracts signed for homes asking $4 million or more. The last time only one such contract was signed was in 2009.
Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com