Retail Market: Manhattan’s Loss is the Outer Boroughs’ Gain

Manhattan retailers are still waiting for the return of tourists to 5th Avenue and employees to Midtown offices, but some retail corridors outside of the central business district have seen metrics return almost to where they were before the pandemic.

Vacancies and rents in the Bronx’s main retail area, Fordham Road, are near normal, the New York Times reported. The vacancy rate is 3 percent, according to the Fordham Road Business Improvement District.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, new residential development has aided projects such as City Point where nearby residents have frequented Trader Joe’s and Target.

In Queens, about 1,000 of 6,000 restaurants have closed. But consumer interest in shopping, restaurants and food on Main Street has risen 16 percent since the pandemic, according to Yelp.

Staten Island is also seeing retail come back to life. Foot traffic jumped 20 percent between February and March and parking increased 140 percent.

(source: therealdeal.com)

Real estate development in South Florida. Photo: Jason Dent

Buying in South Florida? We have five tips for prospective new homeowners

A favorable tax environment, company expansions, the trend of working remotely and, yes, the climate are drawing more residents from California, Chicago and states across the northeast.

Here are five tools and tips to makes the search easier:

▪ Set a realistic budget: Real estate experts recommend that buyers spend a maximum of three-and-a-half times their annual income on a home purchase. A household that earns a total of $100,000, for example, could spend up to $350,000 on a condo or house.

▪ Look beyond the center: Miami-Dade’s median home prices are hovering at a record high of $470,000. Buyers looking for bargains have found them in Homestead, where the median sales price of $300,000 buys 1,926 square feet, according to Realtors.com.

▪ Go north: Broward’s median sales price is lower than Miami’s both for houses ($433,000) and condos ($200,000), Hallandale offers the best deals for condo buyers with a median sales price of $190,000 in 2020.

▪ Millennials, check out South Miami: Millennial first-time home buyers — those between the ages of 25 to 40 — made South Miami hot in 2020. With a 139% year-over-year increase in sales, the community had the largest uptick in closings for homes priced over $750,000. Still, the city isn’t exactly cheap; the average sales price was $1.4 million.

Here you can read the full article.

(source: miamiherald.com)