BY BENJAMIN MANDILE
As housing prices drop and the number of New York City homes are on the rise, buyers have more negotiating power in Queens, according to a new report from StreetEasy.
Buyers with a budget between $700,000 and $1 million will find the most leverage in Flushing and Bayside, with buyers paying 93 percent of the initial asking price.
The more expensive a home, the more a buyer can negotiate on the price, according to the report.
“In 2019, the median buyers paid 97 percent of the initial price in neighborhoods [citywide] below $700,000 and 90 percent of the asking price in neighborhoods above $1 million,” said Nancy Wu, the author of the report.
The median home in New York City has a closing price of 95 percent of the initial asking price.
Rego Park, which has a median price of approximately $430,000 and Jackson Heights, which has an approximate median price of $460,000 have sale to list price ratios of 95 percent and 97 percent respectively.
The sale to list ratio is the final price of a home, or in other words, what a buyer pays for a home.
This is the third consecutive year of prices for homes in the city dropping and with “cooler” home markets there is more room to negotiate as there is less demand.
Prices rose steadily in the borough from 2012 to 2019 as buyers looked here for relative affordability,” said Emily McDonald, a PR specialist for StreetEasy in a February report. “But price growth has significantly slowed in the past several months.”
In 2019 homes stayed on the market for an average of 101 days, much higher than the citywide average of 79, said Emily McDonald, a PR specialist for StreetEasy.
