NYC Home Market to Face Glut After 2018 Sellers Found Few Takers

(Bloomberg) -- Less than half of the New York City homes offered for sale last spring have found buyers, a new study from StreetEasy shows. And as the market’s peak season approaches again, another wave of inventory is coming.

Just 48 percent of the homes listed from March through May of last year had been sold as of Feb. 1, data from the listings website show. That’s down from 62 percent in the same period a year earlier.

It’s a symptom of New York’s softening market, where a glut of inventory has given buyers major bargaining power, said Grant Long, senior economist for StreetEasy. Of the homes that didn’t sell, only 14 percent are still listed. Many of the ones that were pulled could re-emerge this year if sellers decide to try again in the spring, when listings usually swell, he said.

Whether or not they succeed in making a deal will come down to price. Of the homes from last spring that did manage to sell, 70 percent closed for less than their owners initially sought, StreetEasy estimated. That’s up from 62 percent of sales a year earlier and 61 percent in 2016.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sydney Maki in New York at smaki8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus

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