Giving Clients Commission Rebates and Discounts Since 2014

Happy New Year!

Our Digs family keeps growing thanks, in large part, to you! We all hope 2020 brings you an abundance of happiness, good health, love and tolerance. Thank you for making 2019 spectacular for Digs and for helping us along this exciting journey to achieve our mission of making home ownership more affordable without sacrificing service or quality.

Market News

2019’s residential real estate market closed out in much the same way that it began – as a tale of two markets. Depending on how voracious a consumer of real estate news you are (and who you know in the industry), you might think the market is in free fall, with sellers who need to sell being forced to agree to lopsided deals and absorb outrageous losses (if they are lucky enough to get any offers at all). This is actually true to a certain extent for condos at the high end of the market, especially those built during the last two cycles in Midtown, West Chelsea, the Financial District and Battery Park City. We have taken clients to see some incredible homes (such as this one and this one) where sellers are prepared to sell at prices and realize losses well in excess of $1M after less than 2 years of ownership. And there will, no doubt, be more examples of these throughout 2020, as sellers who bought (or signed contracts to buy) in 2014-2015 list their apartments for sale in competition with the growing inventory of comparable high-end units currently on the market or in the development pipeline (estimated to be as much as 9,000 unsold new Manhattan condominiums).

But the other half of the market – that is, most entry-level co-op and condo inventory below $2M – is still doing well, with properly-priced units trading relatively well, albeit, after spending a longer time on the market than in recent past years.

So what is going on? The typical indicators of a healthy real estate market are there and strong – demand for a home in NYC remains extremely high, the stock market is hovering near all-time highs, the NYC rental market remains healthy with vacancy at extremely low levels, unemployment is basically as low as it can go, and mortgage interest rates are still at historic lows. The countervailing forces at play here are, among other things, (i) policy-driven, with the cap on the federal SALT deduction and reduced mortgage interest deduction, increased mansion and transfer taxes, renewed chatter about a pied-a-terre tax, and a strong dollar, and (ii) market-driven, with developers wildly overestimating the market for extremely expensive NYC condos.

The bottom line is that it continues to be a great time to be a buyer at all price points and unit classes. There are plenty of incredible opportunities out there for those of you with patience and capital. We believe that the NYC market will make a full recovery – it always does – and high-end buyers who lock in good deals today will be much like those who bought in 2009 – the envy of market participants during the next cycle.

Digs News

2019 was our busiest year yet – it kinda feels like we just ran a marathon. Here is a quick list of what we accomplished this year:

• We closed 52 transactions – up 20% from last year – and are taking another 12 signed contracts into 2020!
• Our clients saved over $900K through Digs rebates and discounts for the 2^nd year in a row!
• We celebrated our 5-year anniversary.
• Over this first 5 years, we closed nearly a quarter BILLION in transactions!
• We tripled our agent count and are now serving clients in Westchester, the Bronx and Queens!  If you know anybody interested in buying or selling in these areas, please send them our way.
• Meet our newest agents: Michael Robles, Zhanna Kelley and Meredith Schwed.
• We hope to be up and running in Nassau County in early 2020!
• We refreshed our website. 

Friends of Digs

As a real estate broker, you spend a lot of time getting to know a lot of people, and over the years, we have had the privilege of working with so many friendly, interesting, talented and accomplished people from different backgrounds with different perspectives. This has been one of the best parts of my job, and we would love to create opportunities for those in our community who are interested to meet, mingle, hang out and network.

Periodically, we will be organizing free events to bring you together (think wine and whiskey tastings, food-focused events, neighborhood get-togethers where you can meet other Digs clients nearby, charity events, escape the room adventures, etc).  Depending on the event, you are welcome to bring children, friends, and colleagues.

Please enter your information here if you’d like to receive information about the events we are organizing (or have ideas for our next event). We hope to see you at some (or all) of them throughout the year!

Park Slope
195 Garfield Place, 2E
Studio Co-op
$389,000
IN CONTRACT

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Coming Soon…

Although they’re not quite ready to share with the world, we are going to be listing these amazing apartments over the next couple months: