Open House Report

I have learned a few things since the collapse of Lehman Brothers (widely accepted as the death knell of the NY RE market). 1. No one is recession proof. 2. Even people who are still ready to buy are pausing. Their retirements portfolios are down 40%, they may still have a job, but there were cuts in their department or they are waiting for the market to bottom out. I am not a numbers cruncher, so I can only report my tiny sliver of the market, but I am encouraged by what I see. Here's what I can tell you: In the last 3 weeks, I've held open houses for a listing that was recently reduced to under a million. It is easily priced at 25% under the peak price. The first week, I had 30 unique visitors to the open house (meaning I had more than 30 people, some were in groups or with brokers). The next 2 weeks I had 15 unique buyers. Those are strong numbers, any way you look at it. Granted, I don't have an accepted offer, but there are lots of people who are ready to make the move. It may take twice as long (or three times as long or four times as long), but the buyers are out there. I heard about a well priced family sized apt on the Upper west Side that had 50 unique buyers through the doors during last week's open house. I'm not predicting an immediate turnaround. I'm not predicting anything at all. (Even my smart Wall Street friends are no longer predicting). But I do think that it's possible that a combination of astonishingly low interest rates and low prices will make buying sooner rather than later a reality instead of a temptation.
There are those who will wait to see if prices drop further (and they may). I believe that if you're in it for the long haul, it won't matter much if prices drop another 15%. You'll be in the apartment when they've risen another 30% over time. And you'll have the joy of living in a home that you love while everyone else is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.