I get the following question about once a week: James, I’m ready to buy a piece of real estate in the city but I’m concerned about the possibility of a price bubble. Is now the time to buy? Or should I rent for a year and wait for the market to soften?

My response to this sort of inquiry will nearly always be “Buy!” I can’t tell you the number of people who thought they found the “top of the market” only to watch apartment prices continue to rise. Even if prices move sideways for a couple of years, I think ownership presents better opportunities between the possibility of renting out your space and the potential tax advantages when financing your purchase (mortgage interest is tax deductible).

According to a recent Douglas Elliman sales report, the average price of an apartment in New York City rose 2.7% to $1.37 million between June 30th and September 30th of 2007. Since January 1st, the average sales price has risen about 7%. The same numbers crunched in a different fashion does show that units stayed on the market slightly longer and that the number of deals which closed (in terms of percentage) decreased slightly between the second and third quarters. That being said, it looks like the market in New York City is holding up well, especially compared to other urban markets in the country.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 6:06 pm and is filed under NY Condo Blog, Riverhouse Condo - 1 River Terrace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.