From financing arrangements to types of properties, buyers are seeking out deals they might never have given a thought to before the pandemic.
The dramatic rise in median home prices in New York City and other busy real estate markets from pre-pandemic levels, and the intense competition for desirable properties, has driven buyers throughout the country to pursue a range of innovative solutions they might never have considered four or five years ago, brokers and real estate lawyers have told The Epoch Times.
With the median home listing price in New York City at $825,000, and a median sale price of $776,100, according to realtor.com figures, the Big Apple stands out as one of the most expensive and competitive markets in the nation.
By comparison, the median price stood at $615,000 in January 2019.
But that does not mean that buyers elsewhere have it easy. Throughout the rest of the country, they are looking long and hard for affordable deals with average home prices poised at $412,300.
The pandemic was something of a turning point. In the period from the first quarter of 2020 to the end of 2024, for example, the average price rose nearly 50 percent, from $329,000 to $479,500, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Mark Scheier, cofounder of Acton, Massachusetts-based real estate law firm Scheier Katin & Epstein, said recent analyses that describe the current market as a buyer’s market—where inventory volume and a relatively low bar for access favor buyers over sellers—are mistaken.
“I’m not experiencing a buyer’s market at all, I’m still experiencing a seller’s market here,” he told The Epoch Times.
Until recently, about 10 percent of the deals Scheier brokered for clients were all-cash deals, while the rest involved some mixture of financing—typically, bank loans—and cash.
“Almost 40 percent of my deals are cash deals, which was never the case before. People are doing everything they can, breaking into their retirement money, pooling all their assets together, to try to make cash deals,” Scheier said.
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