A: If the market feels like there just isn't that much desirable, well priced "stuff" out there, your not alone. Manhattan supply is down about 7.8% from a year ago and down 8.3% from 2 years ago. On top of tight inventory trends, new deal volume for the month of February is at the strongest level since February 2008! Add it all together, and you have a marketplace that continues to see strong demand even with lower supply. This is deal volume we are talking about here, not price action. We still need to wait 4-5 months for deals signed today to close and be captured by public record in order to get price discovery. Always keep that in mind.
Lets get right to the data. Below is a chart showing you Manhattan's
Monthly New Contracts Signed since 2009:
The breakdown is as follows:
FEB 2009 saw 484 new deals signed
(market bottom post Lehman)FEB 2010 saw 849 new deals signed
FEB 2011 saw 844 new deals signed
FEB 2012 saw 871 new deals signed
This is as real-time as we can get to track demand for the Manhattan market as the UrbanDigs system tallies all exclusive REBNY member listings that have been changed from an ACTIVE listing state to a CONTRACT SIGNED listing state.
Now lets shift the focus to supply trends.