I hope all is well! It's finally Spring!

New York Magazine published a very useful perspective on the 1st Quarter 2014 reports for average sales prices and annual increases of NYC real estate, which came out last week. Those numbers were incredible -- over 30% increase, etc -- but NYM points out they were skewed by a few factors -- a small number of extremely high-end sales and by tax anomalies at the end of 2012 -- and while the numbers are high, they are not quite so daunting for buyers.

This feels about right to me. My clients are not generally Russian oligarchs, but we have been able to make reasonable (in current context) deals in the past few months, though they have needed to be aggressive when they saw what they wanted. However, we still do seem to be only in the first few years of the typical New York City 8 -10 year upside part of the market cycle, so today's buyers should be rewarded down the road.

That notion seems supported by recent reports of New York's continuing adaptability and economic growth -- with much higher job increases and recovery than the rest of the country, and NY's emergence as a leader in the completely new high tech industry, in addition to our  leads in finance and media, along with reports of the quickening pace of recovery in the U.S. in general.

The situation in Brooklyn is similar, and new areas here, and in Queens also, are continually becoming increasingly attractive to first and second time buyers. Rewards in a few years may even be higher in these areas, since upside may be steeper as more people find them desirable.

Since the beginning of the year, clients of mine have successfully made deals in Midtown, the Upper East Side, Carroll Gardens and Kensington. If you or anyone you know have been thinking about owning a piece of this great City, please call me for any information or assistance I can provide. Or, if you know somehow thinking of selling, please ask for my report, "5 Absolutely Essential Questions Sellers May Not Think to Ask Brokers Before Listing."

Best regards,

Jay