Pandemic Buying Hysteria

The Real Estate Market has seen a frenzy in home sales during the pandemic.

Most people thought the market was going to totally collapse. That is not usually the case.

But let’s take a closer look. The National reports are not quite reflective of where we live or desire to live.

So we need to take a closer look. In NYS the housing market was on fire on Long Island and Upstate N.Y.

Rightfully so! The City (5 boroughs ) were totally out of control. Not only did people feel like they were living in bird cages, they had no room to spread out, no room to accomodate working and learning remotely.

There was just not enough space, so many apartment dwellers left the city.

Most fled for space, a yard, an extra room etc. The Pandemic has changed the way buyers look at Real Estate in the sense that now we think ” what if it happens again” ? YES that is possible, buying hysteria caused many people to make poor decisions like over paying, waiving inspections and buying sight unseen.

I never recommend ANY of those choices. FIRST you need to STOP the emotional FEAR rollercoaster and take a deep breath.

Real Estate is one of the most sound investments but can totally be a disaster if you are not being guided correctly or if you choose to buy out of fear.

YES the pandemic was/is scary for sure, now that most people are vaccinating the city is jumping back into action.

Manhattan had a huge dip in pricing, a huge vacancy rate for rentals and that hurt many property owners.

Manhattan also had a decline in Co-op Sales and Condos – people felt they were trapped and needed space – they decided to sell and leave. N.Y.C. was experiencing lots of unrest, protests and out right lawlessness. People did not feel safe.

There are always many variables to the Real Estate Market. It is never driven by 1 factor not even the virus.

Brooklyn also took a major hit and priced declined, apartments were vacant and the effects were very similar to Manhattan.

Both rebounding nicely.

The BRONX – has both massive scale apartment buildings, co-ops and very residential areas – the residential areas did well whereas the heavily populated areas decreased.

Queens, saw a huge uptick – Queens has many suburban style neighborhoods therefore people flocked there to buy a home with outdoor space and extra rooms for remote learning.

Staten Island very similar to Queens, having very suburban areas therefore in some areas saw a major uptick.

Buying Real Estate is like the stock market, you want to buy when it is on the downslide, not the up.

The hysteria caused bidding wars and put people on edge.

Things are simmering down, the outer areas are cooling and Manhattan and Brooklyn are skyrocketing.

Think of it like a see saw! This is all normal until the market stabilized.

So we went from selling in 2 weeks to 3 months. No big deal – but we also dropped at least 10% to 20% in some markets in terms of pricing.

My advice is to always release the fear, the panic and MUST BUY NOW because that drives the market so high you may just be bidding it up to a point where you can be priced out.

If you decide to move or buy Real Estate or a country home, let me know. I am a native New Yorker and have a vast amount of neighborhood knowledge not only in the city.

Stay healthy and safe and breathe.