Thursday, December 12, 2019

Halstead Open House Index – Report from the Weekend of December 8, 2019



Good Morning Halstead Open House Index Subscribers and Contributors!

Here is the analysis from the weekend of December 7-8:

We received 317 surveys, thank you, thank you! Great recovery from the Thanksgiving weekend, when we received just 111. The number of open houses held jumped strongly too. Reminder, there were just 2839 open houses held the weekend of December 1, in contrast to 6282 open houses held this last weekend, meaning we received in our survey 5% of all open houses held in our survey! Not bad, but remember the goal is to receive 10% each week!

The average attendance in all of NYC jumped to “normal” levels. It was 2.65, compared to a miserable 1.87 the weekend of December 1. This is the 4th strongest attendance this quarter. Last year on December 9 weekend we recorded 2.49, so a bit stronger this year.

60 open houses, 19% were super lonely, with zero attendance. When this percentage comes regularly down to 10-12%, it will be the sign of buyers coming back. In the meantime, join your friends to sing in the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band!

The most visited open house was the one held by Karen Wolfe of Halstead. She reported 19 visitors to her first open house for the property at 213 14th Street in the Park Slope of Brooklyn. Here is what Karen had to say: “Hi Fritz! How exciting! Yes, 19 parties and multiple competitive offers going to highest and best today! I think the property is attractive because it is priced correctly for what it is-a townhouse in need of a full renovation but has amazing potential in a phenomenal neighborhood on a great block. People were patient and I was able to answer questions and engage with customers. Busy but manageable. Thanks for the follow up and for your work each week to bring this info back to us. Super interesting to follow.”

There were 4405 prospective buyers hopping from one open house to another last weekend. Here is the dataset. Let’s take a peek at what happened in each borough:

Manhattan – the average jumped to 2.34, from the weekend prior when we recorded 1.69. A nice 40% recovery, but this is expected when compared to Thanksgiving weekend, which is ALWAYS slow (why are you guys holding open houses on Thanksgiving weekend?). Last year, on December 9 weekend, the average was 2.37, so pretty much the same. The East Village (4.00), Central & West Village (3.00) were all above the average, and so was the Upper East Side (2.90) and Upper West Side (2.61). I find it interesting that in the last four weeks the UES is showing stronger numbers than the UWS. Not sure why, we are getting a solid number of surveys from both locations. Other Downtown Areas were very slow (0.91), and not much better in Midtown West (1.17). It was also slow in Chelsea (1.70) and Midtown East (1.86). See the rest below.

Brooklyn – the average jumped very nicely to 4.51, from 2.88 the weekend prior. Last year, on the weekend of December 9 Brooklyn recorded just 3.33. Strong traffic in Park Slope, Downtown Brooklyn, and some other areas with 5-6 visitors, but beware of small sample sizes. Williamsburg was below the average with 3.00 from 11 open houses. We received 37 open houses from Brooklyn. 

Bronx – the average jumped to 2.05 from 20 open houses received. The weekend prior it was 1.56.

Queens – the average jumped to 3.92, from 2.00 the weekend earlier. Busy at two open houses in Jackson Heights!

Staten Island – not much happening there.

Size – Townhouses (5.50) and Multi-family houses (6.00) are in a different market than apartments. From apartments an interesting blip at 4BR open houses (4.33) – but from just three open houses. Otherwise 2BR were in demand (2.83). Not many people liked JR4s last weekend (1.91).

Price - $1M-$2M is where the most buyers are. Above $2M and above $3M fared the worst.

Condition – “Good, but some work needed” (3.22) this time beat the wrecks (2.92).

First Open House – 219% premium for first open houses (5.33) vs. the stale ones (2.43).

By Appointment Only – fairly narrow premium this week: 2.70 vs. 2.11 for “normal” open houses vs. “by appointment only”.

This is all for today. I am experimenting with posting my weekly reports on a blog: https://halsteadopenhouseindex.blogspot.com/. Here you will be able to see old post, in chronological order. I am not going back (too much work), just from the last weekend forward. You can also post comments here. Let me know what you think!

Feel free to ask for more specific analysis of open house traffic. For instance, “the average traffic at 1BR condo open houses in Midtown West and Midtown East from July 1, 2019 until today”. Or similar. You get the point.

Best of luck at your open houses this coming weekend. If you did not post your OH on StreetEasy yet, you are too late!

Best Regards,

Fritz Frigan
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