A record number of New Yorkers are dishing out cash to nab a home in Manhattan, where the average digs run for $2 million.
Cash sales in the Big Apple made up a staggering 67.9% of transactions in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the latest quarterly survey of Manhattan sales from appraisers Miller Samuel and brokerage giant Douglas Elliman.
The figure, which usually hovers around 50%, “exceeds two-thirds of all sales to reach a record-high market share,” according to the report.
It also represents a stark increase from the 55% of wealthy homebuyers who paid for their pad in cash in December 2022.
Tim Malone, a luxury real estate advisor on the Steven Cohen Team and Douglas Elliman, told The Post that he’s seen this cash trend “all year long.”
“The sky-high mortgage rates have had a direct impact on buying trends, especially in the luxury market,” added Malone, whose current listings go for between $650,000 and $20 million.
“More than half of my buy side deals were all cash last year,” he said.
As of Thursday, the average 30-year fixed home loan is 6.62%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac — double what it was in January 2022, when rates started surging as the Federal Reserve began its aggressive tightening regime, which has lifted the benchmark federal funds rate to a 22-year high.
By paying cash, deep-pocketed homebuyers with ample liquid assets are skirting interest rates altogether.
The housing market has threatened to price out middle- and lower-class buyers over the past year as monthly mortgage rates have risen to cost more than monthly rent payments — so much so that the commercial real estate firm CBRE found that in October, the average monthly mortgage payment was a whopping 52% higher than the average monthly rent on a house or apartment.
Traditionally, monthly mortgage rates cost the same or less than monthly rent payments on an apartment — which had been the case from 1996 to mid-2003 — since owners tend to put more cash into their homes than tenants because of expenses like repairs and renovations.
In the lead up to the ’08 market crash, the mortgage premiums peaked at 33% in the second quarter of 2006.
However, the script was flipped due to the increased cost of debt, high rates on a benchmark 30-year home loan — which peaked at 8% late last year — coupled with low housing supply.
These same factors give homeowners an incentive to stay put, as even downsizing to take advantage of lower sticker prices doesn’t make sense given higher mortgage rates.
The higher rates also discourage homeowners who locked in low rates two years ago from selling.
In a bid to combat low housing stock, Wall Street firms are working to create so-called “build-to-rent communities.”
The new homes come equipped with modern flooring and furnishings that are designed to withstand years of wear and tear, thus saving the companies a hefty sum on maintenance costs while also being attractive to tenants.
There are some 900 neighborhoods nationwide with this “build-to-rent” model in mind, according to the National Association of Home Builders, each boasting an average of between 135 and 150 homes designed for institutional investors to own them and rent them out to single families.
“Like most businesses, Wall Street real estate investors are looking at the economies of scale,” Ted Jenkin, the founder and CEO of Atlanta-based oXYGen Financial, told The Post earlier this week.
“If you can buy one plot of land, build a similar style house with similar materials it becomes much cheaper and cost efficient for your outcomes.”
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