Hi all, hope you’re enjoying the last stretch of summer! As we head toward fall, we wanted to share a few updates that may be helpful if buying a home in NYC is on your radar. In this month’s NYC Homebuyer newsletter, we’re covering some interesting developments around best places to live in NY, housing affordability, co-op purchases, and changes that could impact the way buyers navigate the market.
Whether you’re actively looking or simply thinking about buying sometime down the road, staying informed can help you make better decisions when the right opportunity comes along. We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter, and we wish you and your family a wonderful end to summer and a great start to the fall! 🙂
US News Best Places to Live in NY in 2026 – 2027
From the Adirondack Mountains to the nonstop activity of New York City, New York state’s economy is led by financial services, health care, professional services, retail trade, manufacturing and education. Here are the 26 New York cities ranked in this year’s Best Places to Live, from highest to lowest.
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Starter Homes Vanish as Luxury Thrives: The Reality of the K-Shaped Housing Market
A new Realtor.com analysis highlights a growing divide in today’s housing market: while luxury buyers continue to shop relatively steadily, many entry-level buyers are pulling back as prices and mortgage rates make homeownership harder to afford. The income needed to qualify for a typical starter home has risen from roughly $43,000 in 2019 to $78,000 today, while a household earning $75,000 can currently afford only about 23% of homes for sale nationally. Interestingly, the market may appear to be moving toward “balance,” but the article argues that this is partly because some price-sensitive buyers are simply leaving the market. For buyers, the takeaway is that affordability, not necessarily a lack of desire to own, may be one of the biggest factors shaping today’s housing market. Read More
New co-op transparency law sets application timeline requirements
If you’ve ever heard that buying a co-op in NYC can take months, there’s some good news: a new city law is putting deadlines around the co-op board approval process. Management companies must acknowledge a buyer’s application within 15 days, and once an application is deemed complete, the board generally has 45 days to approve or deny the purchase. The new rules are designed to bring more transparency and predictability to the process, while still allowing co-op boards to carefully review a buyer’s finances. For anyone considering a co-op, it’s a welcome change that could help make one of the more stressful parts of the homebuying process a little easier to navigate. Read More
Free Home Valuation
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NYS Monthly Housing Report with Lawrence Yun
The Chief Economist for NAR, Lawrence Yun recently broke down the New York housing market. It’s not a hyper local breakdown for NYC but it is for NYS and that is generally more relevant to our market than nationwide reports. Check out the video here.
From the Blog & YouTube Channel
10 Things you need to Know about the NYC “ADU for You” Program
What you need to know about the Mansion Tax in NYC (Additional Tax on Residential Transfers of $1M+)
Well, that’s it for this month. If you have any questions or need any real estate help, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And if you haven’t already, check out our YouTube Channel, we’re putting up new episodes every week 🙂
https://m.youtube.com/queenshometeam
