Manhattan Home Listings Drop to Level Lower Than Before Pandemic

(Bloomberg) -- Manhattanites are buying homes at a clip that’s depleting the reserve of listings to levels lower than before the pandemic.

There were 974 co-ops, condos and other homes listed for sale in Manhattan at the end of last month, a 42% plunge from the same month two years earlier, before listings swelled amid Covid-19’s lockdowns, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Homebuyers are eagerly signing deals in Manhattan as local employers signal expectations that their workers -- who had decamped for locales outside the borough and farther afield during the pandemic -- will soon need to return to the office. 

There were 1,003 signed contracts last month in the borough, a 17% increase from August 2019, the firms said. Interest in condos in particular surged, with signed deals more than doubling to 476. The buying exuberance also continued in Brooklyn, where 603 contracts were signed for apartments and other homes -- more than double the number during the already-strong market two years earlier. 

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