Dear Clients and Friends,

Both the number of new listings and signed purchase contracts declined moderately (less than 10%) in June 2025, in line with seasonal norms. This continued NYC’s balanced transaction pace throughout 2025, in spite of myriad interim factors including tariffs, macroeconomic and geopolitical events, financial market fluctuations and political developments.

Speaking of politics, Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic NYC Mayoral Primary (and its potential effect on real estate and the city generally) became a widespread topic of conversation among our clients and friends as soon as it was announced. Personal politics aside, as real estate advisors we thought it would be helpful to highlight a couple points. Firstly, we do not yet know who will win the general Mayoral Election in November, and it seems reasonable that some voter support will shift to an Independent candidate (Adams and possibly Cuomo) given the alternatives. If Mamdani does ultimately become Mayor it will likely be rent-stabilized landlords (not free-market lessors) whose ability to increase rents will be most directly curtailed. For those concerned with Mamdani further raising taxes, it’s worth remembering that Albany controls taxation and it’s highly unlikely that Governor Hochel and the state administration will be willing to support tax increases in an election year. All that said, we have received several calls from clients regarding any potential impacts on the value and marketability of their residential property, and we are ALWAYS available to chat with you one-on-one regarding any questions. Personally, we have had several seller and buyer clients sign purchase contracts over the last two weeks -though the market remains nuanced, as always.

In other real estate news, the FARE Act went into effect for NYC rentals on June 10^th, 2025. The law requires landlords (rather than tenants) to pay broker fees for rental listing agents, though renters are still free to engage and pay for their own lessee-side representation. While the FARE Act’s intention is to make housing more affordable, critics believe it may end up doing the opposite since many landlords will now just have to raise base rents in order to cover their increased costs in a city where it is already expensive to be a landlord. It’s still too early to predict the final outcome, however the preliminary data is telling: the median rental price in Manhattan of ~$4,750 in the 9 days (June 1st – June 9th) prior to the FARE Act enactment jumped by ~12% to $5,300 in the subsequent 9 days (June 11^th-June 19^th). If elevated rents persist it may also factor into individuals’ rent-vs-buy analyses.

Lastly, Manhattan’s luxury market (properties priced $4M+) had 155 contracts signed in June 2025, the third highest number for that month since 2006!