Digs Realty 2019 Q2 Newsletter

After a six-month hiatus, our Digs Realty newsletter is back!  I’m sure you’ve all been dying to hear about the 2019 market, so this newsletter is chock full of juicy updates.  I apologize for the break, but April and May were two of the busiest months that Digs has ever had – which set the stage for an incredible 25 signed contracts in Q2!

Thank you, as always, for your referrals and helping us get here.  In large part because of you, we have given over $3.3M in rebates and discounts to our clients, and we have dreams to increase this exponentially in the years to come (see Digs News below for more details on our expansion plans).

Market News

While Digs has had a busy year thus far, this is not indicative of how the Manhattan market has been performing in 2019 relative to 2018.  In fact, the market continues to soften, which does not typically occur during periods of historically low mortgage interest rates (one of my clients just locked his rate for a 7/1 ARM at 2.125%), a very strong rental market and low unemployment.

• Inventory continues to rise, and is up approximately 8% year-over-year, but the number of contracts being signed is not keeping pace.
• The amount of time it takes to sell is also increasing, with condos sitting a median of 92 days before selling (a 51% increase year over year) and co-ops sitting a median of 80 days (a 35% increase year over year).
• Listing discounts (the difference between closed prices and their prior list prices) continue to increase. In my opinion, the absurdity of these numbers may portend the end of the market correction because it shows that sellers are finally starting to get more realistic.  In order to get deals done, condo re-sellers (i.e., not new development) are taking a median haircut of 8.7% (81% more than last year) and co-op sellers are taking a median 6.1% discount (79% more than last year).

Buyer’s Market. 

As the statistics show, to say the least, buyers still have the upper hand and their cards continue to improve.  Excellent deals are available, especially in overbuilt neighborhoods like Midtown, West Chelsea and FiDi.  Buyers who are new to the market or have been observing from the sidelines waiting for the bottom have a great opportunity now to capitalize on the unusual combination of a buyer’s market, an increasing willingness of sellers to negotiate, and extremely low mortgage interest rates.

Sellers who need to upsize their space should not be afraid of today’s market.  The starter apartment markets are not nearly as affected by the correction as those at the higher end, and, while you may realize a lower profit on your sale or incur a loss, if you plan on being in the City long-term, you can leverage the down cycle and increase the overall return on your real estate investment.

New Mansion and Transfer Taxes are Definitely Not Going to Help the High End.  

On March 31st, the NY State legislature agreed to a budget deal with Governor Cuomo creating a new progressive mansion for residential purchases over $2M and transfer tax for residential sales over $3M.  For more details, please click here.

Some Rays of Sunshine.

The doom and gloom I discussed above, however, is based on broad market statistics from Manhattan and are not representative of the entire City.  In neighborhoods with high demand and low inventory, such as the historic districts of Brownstone Brooklyn, quality units trade briskly and bidding wars are still happening for well-priced units with broad appeal.  In prime Park Slope, for example, over the span of a couple weeks during April and May, one of our clients lost out in three bidding wars for renovated brownstone floor-throughs with outdoor space.

Digs Realty News

We are thrilled to announce that, after months of informal discussion, the talented and tenacious Rebecca Gotlieb (also my amazing wife) has officially joined the Digs team!  Her role will focus on growing the Digs brand in NYC, and expanding to Westchester and Long Island.  We hope to formally announce our launch in Westchester and Long Island soon, so stay tuned.

In furtherance of our growth plans, we are starting to recruit experienced sales agents, so if you know ethical and hard-working agents who are looking to significantly increase their volume of transactions by selling an alternative platform to a public that is growing increasingly cynical of the traditional brokerage fee structure, please let us know!  We would love to meet them, tell them about what we’re doing and see if partnering up makes sense  The perfect candidate would be someone who has transactional experience from working on a team and would like to work their own deals, but has not been able to generate a significant book of business for themselves.

*NEW* 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.

So, 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!

Upper West Side
2790 Broadway, 5K
1br/1ba Co-op
$535,000
Learn more »

Hudson Heights
24 Bennett Avenue, 45D
1br/1ba Co-op
$375,000
Learn more »

Upper West Side
315 West End Avenue, 5C
3br/2ba Co-op
$2,070,000
Learn more »
IN CONTRACT

Upper West Side
200 Riverside Boulevard, #304
2br/2ba Condo
$1,585,000
Learn more »
IN CONTRACT

Turtle Bay
310 East 46th Street, 20L
1br/1ba Co-op
$799,000
Learn more »
IN CONTRACT

Morningside Heights
501 West 123rd Street, 18H
1br/1ba Co-op
$625,000
Learn more »
IN CONTRACT

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 two months:

Digs Realty is a full-service residential real estate brokerage company specializing in home purchases and sales in New York City. Clients working with Digs on a purchase are eligible for a rebate of up to 2% of the purchase price, and clients working with Digs on a sale are eligible for commission discounts.

For more information…
Visit our Website • Email Digs • Call Digs

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