As a result of a slowdown in co-op and condominium sales in New York City, overall transactions in the city are down so far in 2012, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the newspaper, compared to a year earlier, the home sales rate is 6.4 percent lower after the first two months of 2012. This is troubling to a number of local industry experts, as the sales rate during the first quarter of 2011 had the worst performance since the market hit bottom in 2009.
"For the first time since the recovery, the U.S. is growing at a quicker pace than New York City," Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead economist Greg Heym told the WSJ. "It had been the U.S. holding us back. That is no longer the case."
At the end of 2011, industry experts viewed the decline in transactions on homes for sale in New York City as nothing more than a seasonal trend added to temporary economic shock as a result of the European debt crisis. However, as the current sales rate appears to have carried over into the new year, it is likely to produce low numbers by the end of the first quarter.
