With the start of the new year comes newly-set expectations, and for the New York housing market, consistency seems to be the key.
According to Frederick Warburg Peters, the president of Warburg Realty, the main drivers of the real estate market for this upcoming year, like previous years, will be local clients.
“New Yorkers tend to be the bulk of purchasers in New York and that’s been true as long as I can remember,” said Peters.
While local buyers have run the market, the most recent numbers indicate a decline in the total amount spent by international clientele.
In a report released in 2015, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that the unit sales of homes purchased by international clients decreased by 10 percent between April 2014 and March 2015.
One reason for the decrease may be the number of hoops foreign buyers have to jump through to purchase a property. Specifically in New York City, foreign buyers have many steps to go through to purchase properties like co-op apartments.
“Buying a co-op is something like joining a country club,” Peters said. “You need letters of reference, you need financial statements, you need money in this country. You need a lot of different things that most foreigners are not too enthusiastic about.”
