MANHATTAN CONDO SALES BOUNCE BACK

In December and January, 21 percent more contracts for condo sales in Manhattan were signed than during the same months a year ago, reported UrbanDigs, an analysis firm.
Flats in the upper east and west sides were most popular, figures show.
The sales boost was propelled by pent-up demand colliding with fewer homes for sale and growing confidence among buyers that the pandemic and economic crisis are ebbing, analysts and brokers told the Wall Street Journal.
Sales cratered by 54 percent in 2020’s second quarter, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel and sales agency Douglas Elliman.
The city’s population dropped by 70,000 last year, analysis firm Unicast reported. The exodus left a glut of empty units and drove prices down by 20 percent, with the average sale bringing $2.7 million in December, Miller Samuel found.
“With the depletion of inventory, with the vaccine around the corner, people started to see a renewed positive opinion about the health of the city,” Sotheby broker Nikki Field told The New York Times.
TREND FORECAST: “The health of the city” will not rebound for years. Never before have so many people so quickly vacated Manhattan. 
With working at home becoming an accepted practice of the new millennium following the outbreak of the COVID War, there will be far fewer people commuting back to the city, thus putting downward pressure on both commercial and residential real estate.
As we had long noted before the COVID War broke out, “For Rent” signs for commercial/retail leases were plastered across the borough. 
Also, with tourism, a critical element of Manhattan’s economic foundation, dead and not expected to rebound for years, there will be more downward pressure on the entire real estate market.