Real Estate: A Great Time to Buy
By Marsha Mack Frances

The New York real estate community suffered the same shock, horror, bereavement, numbness, and despair as the whole city, and now is beginning to get back to work assessing the damage, and the need to hopefully reconstitute and rebuild this, the greatest of cities. It will be months before the impact of September 11^th and its effects on the value of residential real estate in different parts of the city is clear. However, some early observation may be worth considering.

Though fear, acute stress reaction and job loss and proximity to the disaster will make some people feel like fleeing the city, our Mayor is wise in encouraging New Yorkers to try to fight these impulses and get back to the daunting but imminently doable task of strengthening our determination to go back to work and rebuild our lives in a city that our state, the country and the world has come to admire.

No city in the country could have handled a disaster like this as well as New York has. New Yorkers, perhaps used to living exciting, risky and stressful lives, have immeasurable strength and personal resources and sense of community, patriotism and spirit, that gives me great hope that if initially prices dip, ultimately tourists, businesses, and people from many places will seek to be part of its renewal.

My recommendation as a broker with 20 years of experience is that in a short time, though prices are uncertain, this may be the ideal time to take the opportunity to buy New York residential properties.

How many New Yorkers regretted not buying better apartments during the previous dip in the market? How many who fled Manhattan in the 1970s did not rue the day they sold a co-op that soared in value?

Here are several reasons to consider this disaster an opportunity to live and work in New York.

Enormous resources will come to the aid of rebuilding New York. New Yorkers will have less stress disorders if they live near their work. Children benefit from being near parents in an emergency.

New Yorkers bounce back in hard times. The esteem of New York in the country and the world’s eyes has risen enormously and this will benefit the city.#

Marsha Mack Frances is a vice-president of Douglas-Elliman in New York. She can be reached for advice and consultation at 212-650-4829.

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2001.