July 24, 2025 • 11 mins
American real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens believes that despite recent political noise, New York remains one of the most resilient markets in the world. The company says buyers are tracking listings closely, waiting for movement, and responding quickly to value. Even modest price adjustments are sparking renewed interest, with previously quiet listings drawing multiple full-price offers.
Louise Phillips Forbes is a top producing agent at Brown Harris Stevens and a 34-year industry leader with nearly $6 billion in sales and a list of awards and accolades to her credit. Louise speaks with Tim Stenovec and Carol Massar on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. Let's talk real estate because
earlier this month, our Bloomberg News team reported that Manhattan
home sales in the second quarter were stronger than they've
been in almost two years, boosted by cash buyers who've
been undeterred by the economic uncertainty created by President Trump's
(00:28):
trade war. We got some numbers here. A little more
than three thousand co op in condo purchases closed during
the quarter. That's a seventeen percent jump from a year earlier.
That's according to Miller Samuel and the brokerage Doug Ellman.
The median price of those transactions one point two million dollars.
That's up one point six percent.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I love this cash buyer's all right, So we're wondering
what Louise Phillips Forbes is seeing. She's a real estate
broker with Brown Harris steven She's been in the industry
for more than three decades. We love kind of picking
her brain about what's going on. She's got close to
six billion dollars in sales during her tenure. She's back
with us here in our Bloomberg Interactor Broker studio. Hello, Hello, Ray,
good to see you, guys, Good to see you. So
(01:06):
where are we give us a snapshot of the market
right now?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, you just did that little snapshot of the quarter.
I did a little snapshot from May and June for
twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty five, and there
was a seventy two percent volume and price sales, so
it went from one point four billion in sales to
two point four billion of contrast and science almost and
(01:30):
then you also had a twenty five percent on the
number of transactions. This is all four million and above.
And on an average of those two months in twenty
twenty four, they were eight point two million. This year
they're eleven million. So you know, chaos is opportunity for many,
and cash on those deals is ninety ninety percent. That's
(01:54):
a lot. So it's kind of interesting. I mean, I
talk to my bankers all the time, and they are busy.
They are busy, but on the lower end, and people
are closing with cash and then they're they're pulling out,
you know, cash back.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Okay, we spoke to Peter Auchenbloom Auker Bloom, chief revenue
officer at Cention Jet, just earlier this week. That was Monday. Yeah,
that was Monday, a week or lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It was also the day that Flexjet announced this. Another
private jet firm that owned by the same parent company
announced this investment, and they basically said, we're seeing wealthy
people from tech and crypto younger people from tech and
crypto want private jets. We're seeing our demographic go younger
(02:40):
and we're seeing crypto and surprise me, is that happening
to you?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I think that the assets. First of all, let's just
kind of bring it down for one second and remember
that the first time buyer today on an average is
pushing forty years old. That's different from that millennial run
that we had in the construction boom. But even in
New York, right in New York, Yeah, particularly in New York,
(03:04):
to be honest, and I'm seeing more and more first
time buyers that are purchasing that are having family members,
multi generational family members like grandmothers, like instead of inheriting this,
I'm giving it to you or I'll co purchase with
you with the right to survive. So listen, creativity is
We're in Mecca, so people are going to be creative
(03:26):
to buy a piece of the rock. And I do
think the you know, new money and I've seen it.
Watch the tech commitment from the first announcement of Google
in two thousand and five with like forty eight employees
more to five hundred to twenty five hundred, and you
see that we are now becoming a hub for tech.
(03:47):
And as you run up against the housing issues that
are in California, we're attractive. You know, we can get
insurance for our apartments.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Do we stay attractive even if Zorn Mandani wins the
mayoral race?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You mean Robin Hood, I mean the Robin Hood rhetoric.
I mean, listen, I know this person cares about New Yorkers.
I believe that. I believe wholeheartedly that his intentions are stellar.
But you know, the ideology around real estate is not
is not a conversation, it's action. It's infrastructure, it's collaboration
(04:26):
public private. And you know, we just crawled out of
five years of COVID. We now have sixty four million
last year in tourism. You know, the crime is down.
You have people back in the office, so freezing rent
is doing nothing, And it's also suggesting that landlords are
(04:50):
all on their yachts doing nothing, and that they should
be paying for the opportunity for somebody else to be
able to pay rent. But there's so many landlords that
are just skinning by because they were postponed from allowing
people who weren't paying rent.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
So, Louise, you know, Tim and I talk about this
a lot, and I feel like when we have real
estate discussions and the idea of providing affordable homes in
kind of major cities where a lot of people work,
so that you don't have individuals who are maybe not
making that much money having to travel an hour or
two I've in order to work. So what's what's because
(05:27):
I've been talking about this like my whole career. Yeah,
how you know this industry, how do we do this
so that there is affordable homes in the places where
people are working.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I mean when I came into the business, they had
something called four twenty one a's there were certificates that
when you improve a land, yeah there's an unimproved land.
And remember Bloomberg, thank you twelve twelve years of you know, rezoning,
you know, probably forty percent of our land mass, which
(05:57):
has helped that situation. And when you build in the
middle of I don't know. I mean they used to
have these tax certificates that when developers would improve land
they would get a four to twenty one a tax abatement.
It's a ten year abatement on your taxes. And then
for that certificate they would then go and sell it
(06:18):
for somebody to do affordable housing somewhere else that has
not that has gone away.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Now was that affordable house though still in New York City?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That yes, oh okay. And by the way, you know,
people would say it's well, we don't want to just
be in the Bronx and in you know, far parts
of Brooklyn or Queens but honestly.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Nothing wrong with those parts.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you want a mixture. And I just think that
it has to be thoughtful and it has to be collaborative,
and it can't be just somebody who isn't practically experiencing
these things making rules up, like you know, the city
councilman that wants to have that has good intentions around
broker fee Well rentals as of June eleventh are up
(07:02):
fifteen percent because they've just passed it all off to
the consumer and so unintentional consequences when lawmakers don't want
to collaborate with the industry individuals as well as just
regular people. If it's only politicians making these decisions and
not working with their people, I think.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
There's always a concern though, that that the people who
are renting don't have the voice and don't have a
seat at the table.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So city is sixty eight percent, it's a city of renters. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We're speaking with Louise Phillips Forbes. She's real estate broker
with Brown Harris Stevens, close to six billion dollars in
sales over the last thirty plus year. She's back with
us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. I want to
get to know your clients a little bit and how
they're different than they were let's say a year ago.
The people who are selling real estate with you right now,
(07:55):
why are they selling and where are they moving?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Wow? I mean a lot of it is life change,
you know. But I'm I have people that have been
contemplating selling since twenty twenty that are now selling because
there's a lack of inventory. What their apartments were not
worth in twenty twenty three are worth what they would
like and they'll accept it. So, look, a lot of
(08:24):
people are downsizing and staying in the city. They are
people that are leaving. But that's that's that's a life decision.
That is, you know, a cycle of life. I mean,
I have a lot of people coming back into the
city because their grandkids and their kids are here. So
who are my sellers. My sellers range from like a
(08:44):
one bedroom for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
and that's somebody who bought who now is leaving the
city and loved owning her home and she's ready for
a new chapter in Colorado. And then you have a
sixteen million dollar penthouse which is from one of my
developers that will be coming on the market in September
(09:07):
on the Upper West Side. And I just think there's
just not enough inventory. Inventory is twenty one percent down
and that is the first time we've experienced that since
COVID as well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's amazing because sometimes it feels like there's a ton
of building and stuff going on. Hey, before you go,
you've got a minute and a half left, tell us
about what you're seeing in terms of international purchases.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They're coming, they're coming, and it's doubled since twenty twenty four,
particularly the Chinese market. I mean, when you are dealing
with strife in your government and the housing market in
Beijing is kind of upside down. I'm not familiar with
that market particularly, but in all of the appointments that
I've had in all the various condominiums, they are buying.
(09:48):
Some of them are buying with the anticipation of their
children in the future to be going to school here.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Where are they buying all over?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But new developments, particularly that has always been in Manhattan, Brooklyn,
Long Island City. We were talking earlier about there are
some developers that are leaning into the Asian market by
accepting deposits that are in the Chinese go on, yeah,
(10:18):
and that is because they are they're being nimble. We
have to be nimble. That's new, that's relatively new. There
are two projects in particular. One is in Long Island
City and this was news for me. You know, a
couple of months.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Ago, Russian buyers gone yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
No, no quiet, quiet, coming back quietly trying to acquire
or displace, you know, place assets, but not as big
as what we experienced when you had the eighty eight
million fifteen Central Park West transactions. Not like that Midas
quite yepes. And you have also I think their I
(10:58):
have had three different Korean transactions this year. I think
they're quiet French. I mean, I think people are trying
to come here. There's you know, jargon around the Canadians
not being happy.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And if President Trump does away with a capital gains
tax on house sales, which he kind of talked about
this week from the Oval Office, what would that mean?
And just got twenty five just.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
To remind everybody when Bush was in the House in
twenty twelve and he reduced the capital gains to fuel
our market went on fire in twelve and thirteen. Just
for that. That was like the people that lived on
Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue for four decades finally sold.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I can only imagine Louise Phillips Forbes always fun to
check in with you, be well, Be well. Real estate
broker Brown Harris Stevens joining us at our Boomberg Interactive
Broker Studio. This is Blomberg
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. Let's talk real estate because
earlier this month, our Bloomberg News team reported that Manhattan
home sales in the second quarter were stronger than they've
been in almost two years, boosted by cash buyers who've
been undeterred by the economic uncertainty created by President Trump's
(00:28):
trade war. We got some numbers here. A little more
than three thousand co op in condo purchases closed during
the quarter. That's a seventeen percent jump from a year earlier.
That's according to Miller Samuel and the brokerage Doug Ellman.
The median price of those transactions one point two million dollars.
That's up one point six percent.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I love this cash buyer's all right, So we're wondering
what Louise Phillips Forbes is seeing. She's a real estate
broker with Brown Harris steven She's been in the industry
for more than three decades. We love kind of picking
her brain about what's going on. She's got close to
six billion dollars in sales during her tenure. She's back
with us here in our Bloomberg Interactor Broker studio. Hello, Hello, Ray,
good to see you, guys, Good to see you. So
(01:06):
where are we give us a snapshot of the market
right now?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, you just did that little snapshot of the quarter.
I did a little snapshot from May and June for
twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty five, and there
was a seventy two percent volume and price sales, so
it went from one point four billion in sales to
two point four billion of contrast and science almost and
(01:30):
then you also had a twenty five percent on the
number of transactions. This is all four million and above.
And on an average of those two months in twenty
twenty four, they were eight point two million. This year
they're eleven million. So you know, chaos is opportunity for many,
and cash on those deals is ninety ninety percent. That's
(01:54):
a lot. So it's kind of interesting. I mean, I
talk to my bankers all the time, and they are busy.
They are busy, but on the lower end, and people
are closing with cash and then they're they're pulling out,
you know, cash back.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Okay, we spoke to Peter Auchenbloom Auker Bloom, chief revenue
officer at Cention Jet, just earlier this week. That was Monday. Yeah,
that was Monday, a week or lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It was also the day that Flexjet announced this. Another
private jet firm that owned by the same parent company
announced this investment, and they basically said, we're seeing wealthy
people from tech and crypto younger people from tech and
crypto want private jets. We're seeing our demographic go younger
(02:40):
and we're seeing crypto and surprise me, is that happening
to you?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I think that the assets. First of all, let's just
kind of bring it down for one second and remember
that the first time buyer today on an average is
pushing forty years old. That's different from that millennial run
that we had in the construction boom. But even in
New York, right in New York, Yeah, particularly in New York,
(03:04):
to be honest, and I'm seeing more and more first
time buyers that are purchasing that are having family members,
multi generational family members like grandmothers, like instead of inheriting this,
I'm giving it to you or I'll co purchase with
you with the right to survive. So listen, creativity is
We're in Mecca, so people are going to be creative
(03:26):
to buy a piece of the rock. And I do
think the you know, new money and I've seen it.
Watch the tech commitment from the first announcement of Google
in two thousand and five with like forty eight employees
more to five hundred to twenty five hundred, and you
see that we are now becoming a hub for tech.
(03:47):
And as you run up against the housing issues that
are in California, we're attractive. You know, we can get
insurance for our apartments.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Do we stay attractive even if Zorn Mandani wins the
mayoral race?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You mean Robin Hood, I mean the Robin Hood rhetoric.
I mean, listen, I know this person cares about New Yorkers.
I believe that. I believe wholeheartedly that his intentions are stellar.
But you know, the ideology around real estate is not
is not a conversation, it's action. It's infrastructure, it's collaboration
(04:26):
public private. And you know, we just crawled out of
five years of COVID. We now have sixty four million
last year in tourism. You know, the crime is down.
You have people back in the office, so freezing rent
is doing nothing, And it's also suggesting that landlords are
(04:50):
all on their yachts doing nothing, and that they should
be paying for the opportunity for somebody else to be
able to pay rent. But there's so many landlords that
are just skinning by because they were postponed from allowing
people who weren't paying rent.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
So, Louise, you know, Tim and I talk about this
a lot, and I feel like when we have real
estate discussions and the idea of providing affordable homes in
kind of major cities where a lot of people work,
so that you don't have individuals who are maybe not
making that much money having to travel an hour or
two I've in order to work. So what's what's because
(05:27):
I've been talking about this like my whole career. Yeah,
how you know this industry, how do we do this
so that there is affordable homes in the places where
people are working.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I mean when I came into the business, they had
something called four twenty one a's there were certificates that
when you improve a land, yeah there's an unimproved land.
And remember Bloomberg, thank you twelve twelve years of you know, rezoning,
you know, probably forty percent of our land mass, which
(05:57):
has helped that situation. And when you build in the
middle of I don't know. I mean they used to
have these tax certificates that when developers would improve land
they would get a four to twenty one a tax abatement.
It's a ten year abatement on your taxes. And then
for that certificate they would then go and sell it
(06:18):
for somebody to do affordable housing somewhere else that has
not that has gone away.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Now was that affordable house though still in New York City?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That yes, oh okay. And by the way, you know,
people would say it's well, we don't want to just
be in the Bronx and in you know, far parts
of Brooklyn or Queens but honestly.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Nothing wrong with those parts.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you want a mixture. And I just think that
it has to be thoughtful and it has to be collaborative,
and it can't be just somebody who isn't practically experiencing
these things making rules up, like you know, the city
councilman that wants to have that has good intentions around
broker fee Well rentals as of June eleventh are up
(07:02):
fifteen percent because they've just passed it all off to
the consumer and so unintentional consequences when lawmakers don't want
to collaborate with the industry individuals as well as just
regular people. If it's only politicians making these decisions and
not working with their people, I think.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
There's always a concern though, that that the people who
are renting don't have the voice and don't have a
seat at the table.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So city is sixty eight percent, it's a city of renters. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We're speaking with Louise Phillips Forbes. She's real estate broker
with Brown Harris Stevens, close to six billion dollars in
sales over the last thirty plus year. She's back with
us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. I want to
get to know your clients a little bit and how
they're different than they were let's say a year ago.
The people who are selling real estate with you right now,
(07:55):
why are they selling and where are they moving?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Wow? I mean a lot of it is life change,
you know. But I'm I have people that have been
contemplating selling since twenty twenty that are now selling because
there's a lack of inventory. What their apartments were not
worth in twenty twenty three are worth what they would
like and they'll accept it. So, look, a lot of
(08:24):
people are downsizing and staying in the city. They are
people that are leaving. But that's that's that's a life decision.
That is, you know, a cycle of life. I mean,
I have a lot of people coming back into the
city because their grandkids and their kids are here. So
who are my sellers. My sellers range from like a
(08:44):
one bedroom for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
and that's somebody who bought who now is leaving the
city and loved owning her home and she's ready for
a new chapter in Colorado. And then you have a
sixteen million dollar penthouse which is from one of my
developers that will be coming on the market in September
(09:07):
on the Upper West Side. And I just think there's
just not enough inventory. Inventory is twenty one percent down
and that is the first time we've experienced that since
COVID as well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's amazing because sometimes it feels like there's a ton
of building and stuff going on. Hey, before you go,
you've got a minute and a half left, tell us
about what you're seeing in terms of international purchases.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They're coming, they're coming, and it's doubled since twenty twenty four,
particularly the Chinese market. I mean, when you are dealing
with strife in your government and the housing market in
Beijing is kind of upside down. I'm not familiar with
that market particularly, but in all of the appointments that
I've had in all the various condominiums, they are buying.
(09:48):
Some of them are buying with the anticipation of their
children in the future to be going to school here.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Where are they buying all over?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But new developments, particularly that has always been in Manhattan, Brooklyn,
Long Island City. We were talking earlier about there are
some developers that are leaning into the Asian market by
accepting deposits that are in the Chinese go on, yeah,
(10:18):
and that is because they are they're being nimble. We
have to be nimble. That's new, that's relatively new. There
are two projects in particular. One is in Long Island
City and this was news for me. You know, a
couple of months.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Ago, Russian buyers gone yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
No, no quiet, quiet, coming back quietly trying to acquire
or displace, you know, place assets, but not as big
as what we experienced when you had the eighty eight
million fifteen Central Park West transactions. Not like that Midas
quite yepes. And you have also I think their I
(10:58):
have had three different Korean transactions this year. I think
they're quiet French. I mean, I think people are trying
to come here. There's you know, jargon around the Canadians
not being happy.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And if President Trump does away with a capital gains
tax on house sales, which he kind of talked about
this week from the Oval Office, what would that mean?
And just got twenty five just.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
To remind everybody when Bush was in the House in
twenty twelve and he reduced the capital gains to fuel
our market went on fire in twelve and thirteen. Just
for that. That was like the people that lived on
Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue for four decades finally sold.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I can only imagine Louise Phillips Forbes always fun to
check in with you, be well, Be well. Real estate
broker Brown Harris Stevens joining us at our Boomberg Interactive
Broker Studio. This is Blomberg
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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