NEW YORK — A new Douglas Elliman Real Estate report shows the number of signed sales contracts doubled for apartment sales in Manhattan and Brooklyn in January when compared to January 2020.


What You Need To Know

  • Pent up demand, low mortgage rates and sellers willing to take less for their property led to a sharp increase in sales activity

  • Newly signed co-op contracts in Manhattan increased by 167% from January 2020 to January 2021

  • Newly signed co-op contracts in Brooklyn increased by 156% from January 2020 to January 2021

  • Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers says prices will continue to "be soft" until the vaccine has been widely distributed

Apartment sales, like everything else, froze when the pandemic hit. As a result there’s a lot of pent up demand. That, combined with plunging mortgage rates and sellers willing to take less for their property led to this sharp increase in sales activity.

"When I saw January’s numbers I went, ‘yes.’  We are on the right track,’” Steven James said, the President & CEO of Douglas Elliman New York City.

The increase in signed sales contracts for co-ops is larger than condos, but both are up in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

While the first signs of a rebound started in December in Manhattan, Brooklyn has been seeing more sales activity for months, performing more like the suburbs.

People left Manhattan during the pandemic for places like Florida and the Hamptons, but realtors say the research performed by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers for Douglas Elliman shows that with the start of vaccinations, there seems to be a return.

“What we’re hearing anecdotally and seeing evidence of this people who to left to those places are starting to come back to their homes they left here and if they didn’t have a home they’re certainly out looking for a home,” said James.

Rental prices have plunged across the city by more than 20% from the prices before the pandemic and sales prices in Manhattan are down about 4%.

Experts expect sales prices to possibly continue to drop, but certainly not increase until at least June, a recovery dependent upon widespread vaccinations and the economy beginning to turn the corner as well.