More Manhattan homebuyers are paying cash than at any point in recent history, to take advantage of deals to be had in a sagging sales market.
Nearly six in 10 purchases in the first quarter were completed without financing, from a $700,000 Hell’s Kitchen studio that a mother bought for her daughter, to a 2,900-square-foot (269-square-meter) condo in a newly converted hotel near Central Park that sold for $10.3 million.
The transactions show it’s not just ultra-wealthy investors who are dropping cash for Manhattan homes. Plenty of normal buyers are skipping mortgages as borrowing costs hover at roughly double their early 2022 levels. At the same time, sellers seeing tepid demand for their listings are seizing on opportunities to close deals quickly.