With a glut of high-end supply floundering on the market, some top agents are now saying that we have officially entered a global buyer’s market for luxury homes.
Jed Garfield, president of Leslie J. Garfield & Co., told the Dow Jones’ Mansion Global that he first noticed that the market was shifting late last year when properties that were listed at a fair market price didn’t sell. But now he points to a townhouse on East 70th Street between Park and Lexington avenues that was bought for $31 million in 2013, re-listed for $32.5 million a year and a half ago, and has now been reduced to $22 million.
“The market is not what it was,” Garfield said. “You’d be very hard-pressed to find anybody who would pay more than 2015 prices today.”
Compass agent Jay Heiselmann said that he’s seen buyers looking for a $3 million-to-$5 million homes in Brooklyn become pickier. And Dolly Lenz said that the shift has affected the way agents are treated. She says that as recently as a year ago, new agents would be turned away from top-tier new developments. But now, everyone is getting appointments.
“That is a sure sign of a very big shift to a buyer’s market,” she said. [Mansion Global] –Christopher Cameron