NYC Real Estate Market Shows Glimmers Of Recovery: Reports

NEW YORK CITY — A coronavirus pinch on New York City's real estate market apparently loosened as 2020 closed, according to two new studies.

Residential sales volume citywide jumped 40 percent and transactions grew 50 percent in the last quarter of 2020, a Real Estate Board of New York study found.

The jump is due almost entirely to big spikes in the boroughs outside Manhattan, where sales volume remained flat.

"This end-of-year surge in home sales is another positive sign that the City has begun down a long road to recovery,” James Whelan, the real estate board's president, said in a statement.

The coronavirus pandemic put a massive damper on the city's real estate sector. Even as sales volume and transactions rose from October through December, they still were 10 percent and 7 percent lower than the same span in 2019, according to the study.

Still, both increased significantly compared to those in the third quarter's late summer months. The study found:

• Brooklyn: Sales volume increased 90 percent and transactions increased 73 percent
• Queens: Sales volume increased 69 percent and transactions increased 56 percent
• Staten Island: Sales volume increased 56 percent and transactions increased 52 percent
• Bronx: Sales volume increased 50 percent and transactions increased 39 percent
• Manhattan: Sales volume remained flat while transactions increased 18 percent

Another study by the real estate board found more modest growth in investment sales volume and transaction in the second half of 2020.

Whelan, in a statement, called the new activity an encouraging sign but one that required aid to sustain.