The Manhattan real estate market is yet another victim of the coronavirus.
The number of new for-sale listings and the number of contracts signed dropped from the same time last year, according to a report from UrbanDigs.
Meanwhile, the number of listings pulled from the market skyrocketed compared with the third week of March in 2019. UrbanDigs’ analysis compares the week beginning March 16, 2020 to the week of March 18, 2019 (both the third full week of March).
Sources include the Residential Listing Service from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), Brooklyn Multiple Listings Service, the city’s online property records portal ACRIS, and proprietary data.
The findings’ key numbers are:
- 98 – The number of listings new to the market, compared with 459 during the same week in 2019, a 70 percent decrease.
- 109 – The number of new contracts signed, compared with 214 in the third week of March last year, a drop of 49 percent.
- 448 – The number of listings taken off the market during the week of March 16, 2020, compared with 119 in the third week of March last year, a “startling increase” of 276 percent.
Inventory is certainly down. But until there is more data — say, on the median prices of sold properties during this time — it is unclear how badly the Manhattan sales market is and will be affected by the coronavirus.