The pandemic has had a significant impact on the real estate market in New York City. In this video, Elliot Bogod, a real estate author, educator and blogger, and Founder and Managing Director of Broadway Realty, offers his insights on the post-Covid recovery and what it could mean for Manhattan.

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SPEAKERS

Elliot Bogod, Michael Levitis

Good day, everybody. It’s Michael Levitis with Alpha Insider and I bring you back Elliot Bogod from Broadway real estate. Elliot, thank you for being with us. We were introduced you in our prior session. You are a premier and iconic real estate broker from Broadway Realty in Manhattan and of course you buy and sell and the rentals in Manhattan. Now let’s get into nitty gritty, the details of buying and selling property mostly apartments in Manhattan. I want to start with a very important topic areas: post-COVID recovering. Can you tell us what are the trends? What is the market like in terms of supply and demand, someone who’s looking into moving into Manhattan, what can they expect?

Elliot Bogod 05:09
Thank you. So very good question and happy to answer it. So here is the after pandemic, and I hope it is, because we are in after the Labor Day here 2022, September, mid September, and schools are open. People are back to their full life in New York and Manhattan. Streets full of people and life is happening in New York and you see a lot of opening stores, restaurants.

Michael Levitis 05:49
By the way, for some people who dont know. I’m in Manhattan all the time and the restaurants are just full. It’s often sometimes it’s impossible to get a reservation. It’s a very huge sign of New York’s comeback. Of course, masks are off now in subway. So the signs are – the pandemic is over.

Elliot Bogod 06:09
Yes, and we see a lot of cultural Broadway shows, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, it’s all open and people enjoying performances and they go to museums, galleries, and restaurants, as you said. So we see this as an uptrend and the real estate reflects it. We see rentals, rental market is booming in New York. September is always a busy month for us. We see a lot of people coming back and renting new apartments, they upgrading their old apartments, the downsizing, upsizing, they looking for new places, close to schools, new neighborhoods, they discovering new amenities in the buildings, the renting and new or older buildings. So we see a lot of trends here. The most importantly is New Yorkers are coming back to New York, which is exciting trends we saw or 500,000 people leave New York during the pandemic. So we see many of them came back.

Michael Levitis 07:33
They have experienced remorse for leaving the New York City.

Elliot Bogod 07:39
Yes, they are coming back and they keeping us busy, and so we are happy to help. So what I see is the rental market, we still have availability, so a lot of apartments are available. We doing rentals and condo market is taking a new turn. Inventory today is about 6600 apartments are for sale in Manhattan, are we getting the statistics, we’re getting all the data and about 3000 apartments signed contract. So it’s moving, the market is taking a storm and sells.

Michael Levitis 08:24

Let me ask you a follow up. We know that the rates have increased, the mortgage rates, does that affect the prices or the market in Manhattan?

Elliot Bogod 08:36
Yes. As we saw the mortgage rate came up significantly. It happened in May last year. I mean, May this year. So just a couple of months ago, we saw its new interest rates and the payments are more expensive. So it doesn’t help condo markets. Unfortunately, people who are in need of mortgages, they are not as they cannot afford as much as before. So that will take some toll. We didn’t see it yet. But many people in Manhattan buying without mortgages, those sales are happening as well. We have international buyers, international buyers are also known for purchases without mortgages. So the market is definitely will happen with or without low rates.

Michael Levitis 09:38
That’s good to hear. I also read about a lot of new people moving into Manhattan, people who before did not consider Manhattan, and there’s a young new blood coming in. Do you see that also from your clients?

Elliot Bogod 09:56
Yes, definitely Michael. What I do is I see a lot of neighborhoods such as in Brooklyn and downtown Brooklyn, the prices almost reached the Manhattan levels. Same thing in Long Island City, Astoria. So prices for rentals, especially they are reaching Manhattan heights. At its highs, so people decided to buy in the city, they are priced out for rentals. They thinking: why don’t I own an apartment or condo and buying for kids nowadays as well?

Michael Levitis 10:40
You bring up a very good point, if before people were moving to downtown Brooklyn area. So like you said, Astoria, maybe Coop City, because they were looking for cheaper rentals. Now that the rent there is going up, you may as well go back to the city and enjoy that whole experience of being in the center, the center in the heart of New York City for the same prices.

Elliot Bogod 11:09
Right. The commuters we know a very long commute during morning hours, and it’s rush hours. That can be one or two hours of your day is spent in the commute. So people would like to avoid that and more safe convenience of living in the city. So these people are coming and buying.

Michael Levitis 11:36
Elliot, thank you so much for your broad overview of the conditions of the market of real estate in Manhattan. Of course, you’re in the middle of all of it, you are the person, the Nexus, that connects the buyers and sellers, you have your fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in real estate. We talked about everything broadly. But I want to get into more in the details on our next sessions. You mentioned coops, for example. It’s a whole different animal of buying a coop in Manhattan as opposed to other boros or other cities. I want to talk to you about that as well. What are the requirements? How easy or difficult it is the cons and the pros. We’re going to talk

about new construction. Should you buy new condos? Or should you consider buying existing used apartments? So please follow us on our future sessions with Elliot Bogod from Broadway Realty. We’re gonna get into all those details. We’re here to educate who ever wants to move into Manhattan, who wants to buy or rent an apartment or some property in Manhattan. But if you have any specific questions, you can always call Elliot on the number that’s in the bottom of the screen, as well as we’re going to have the website. Elliot, thank you so much for your time. Thank everybody for turning in. Until next time.

Elliot Bogod 13:00
Thank you, Michael. Thank you, dear listeners and viewers. Happy to be with you.