U.S. housing supply is falling short of demand, as droves of buyers returned to home shopping last month, according to a report Wednesday from realtor.com.
“Our June data reinforced that buyers are out in force and serious about finding a home,” said Danielle Hale, the listing portal’s chief economist.
But there isn’t enough to choose from. Sellers appear to be less eager to put their homes on the market with so much prevailing uncertainty. Total inventory was 27% lower in June than a year ago, according to the realtor.com report—compounding what was already a shortage of available homes for sale before the pandemic.
For the fifth time in the last eight weeks, just two Manhattan homes asking $4 million or more entered into contract last week, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly luxury roundup published Monday.
To put that in context, in the same week in 2019, there were 27 luxury contracts signed, totaling $291.21 million —or almost 18 times the $16.49 million total volume last week. “Talk about being in a rut,” said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty.
The priciest apartment to go into contract last week was a three-bedroom duplex on East 79th Street, asking $11.995 million (only the fourth contract to top $10 million in the last eight pandemic weeks, according to Ms. Olshan). The apartment was sold to a foreign buyer who never saw it in person, but rather, made a decision off website photos, floor plans and renderings.
The buyer “was referred by a group of friends who knew about the building,” said Pamela Johananoff, who represented both the developer and the buyer. “He took a leap of faith. We had a very complete fact sheet including floor plans and renderings. Every question was answered, and we gave him all the specifications down to the millwork.”
The No. 2 contract signed last week was for a floor-through three-bedroom co-op on West 13th Street, asking $4.495 million, reduced from $5.3 million when it was first listed two years ago.
The seller was represented by Barak Dunayer and Jacky Teplitzky of Douglas Elliman. The buyer was represented by Scott Hamm of Compass. The buyer had been looking for a year, and saw the unit in February, according to Ms. Olshan. By late March, he started negotiating. It took about a month for the contract to be signed; one hurdle was getting an electronic copy of the co-op board minutes—provided only after the buyer and his attorney agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
source:Mansion Global
