DeBianchi Real Estate founder Sam DeBianchi discusses the housing market and says the coronavirus pandemic won’t automatically cause city residents to move to the suburbs.
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While U.S. home sales plunged in March – with more pain expected to follow – one area of New York state that is not expecting a long-term, coronavirus-inflicted downtrend is the Hamptons, a popular refuge on Long Island for Manhattan’s wealthy.
According to a new report from Brown Harris Stevens, during the first quarter of the year there was a substantial increase in multimillion-dollar sales in the Hamptons. That, of course, was before the impact of the outbreak set in.
“Prior to the state-wide shutdown of real estate activity in March, the market was showing significant signs of strength, exhibited particularly in the sharp rise in the ultra-high-end market above $10 million,” Robert Nelson, Brown Harris Stevens executive managing director of the Hamptons, said in a statement.
While the number of overall sales dipped more than 9 percent compared with the same period last year, overall dollar volume jumped by more than 17 percent.
Prices had come down – making properties more affordable. In the first quarter, the median sales price was slightly lower when compared with the first three months of 2019.
Nelson told FOX Business the number of ultra-high-end sales was “unusual” for the time of year, driven by what he deemed an increasing number of very wealthy people that have been deciding to invest. And that trend is likely to bode well for a rebound in the region.
While the U.S. real estate market reels from the effects of nationwide lockdown orders, Nelson predicts there will be a lot of “pent-up demand” within the Long Island sanctuary once realtors are able to start showing properties again.
“[These are] New Yorkers, this is where they all come and they want to be here,” Nelson said. “We will really see a takeoff of the market.”
Another factor that is likely to contribute to a bump in activity is the fact that the coronavirus outbreak – which has been particularly severe in New York – caused many Manhattan residents to flee to the Hamptons in order to escape the densely populated city. They either moved into their own homes or rented a property, causing an unprecedented surge in offseason rental activity.
And it’s not just the “normal summer crowd” but a lot of newcomers, too.
“Everyone has come out here, it’s like summer,” Nelson said. “Every house is occupied now … the rental season was crazy.”
Those people could decide to get a “permanent safe haven” as a means to escape the New York City area, particularly with the possibility of a second coronavirus outbreak occurring in the fall or next winter.
On the downside, the exodus of residents from Manhattan caused local cases of coronavirus to rise in Suffolk County.
As previously reported by FOX Business, experts have largely predicted that the housing market will bounce back once economies resume operating as normal.
“As consumer confidence rises and employment opportunities follow, we should see a normalization of the residential market,” Garrett Derderian, managing director of market analysis at CORE, told FOX Business. “While housing led the recession in 2008-2009, it may be poised to bring us out of it now.”
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
