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Bravo's Kirsten Jordan On The Housing Market And The Latest Season of 'Million Dollar Listing New York'

Real estate broker Kirsten Jordan joins Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss the future of real estate and her being the first female cast member on Bravo's 'Million Dollar Listing New York'.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, the housing market has been heating up. In the Hamptons, a home rented for a whopping $2 million for this summer, just highlighting how much demand has been outstripping supply. So let's chat more about this housing market with Kirsten Jordan from Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing, New York." Kirsten, thanks so much for joining us today. Curious to know how long you think this demand is going to last. Do you think that there's a bubble forming in the housing market, or, perhaps, even just regionally here in New York?

KIRSTEN JORDAN: Well, I have to say that in Manhattan, we are seeing inventory absorb at an incredibly rapid rate. Specifically in the luxury sector, we have seen 11 straight weeks of over 30 contracts signed per week, which is the longest streak that we've seen since 2006, when they started doing this specific report about the luxury market. As far as a bubble in New York, it's hard to say, because we have been in a rather slow market we were in from about 2017 through the beginning of 2020, when things really started to pick up again, right before we had our quarantine.

So I think we still have room specifically in the New York City market for further upside because we do have new development inventory that needs to be absorbed. So we haven't seen the end of this yet, in my opinion.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, Kirsten, where we heard all the prognosticators saying it's the end of big cities. It's the end for New York City. We saw that exodus initially when the pandemic hit, especially of high net worth individuals leaving the city. Is that what you're seeing now? Or are people sort of having buyer's remorse and starting to come back into the city, those people who initially left?

KIRSTEN JORDAN: Yeah, it's kind of like flee-er's remorse, I think. They left. They thought that it was going to be easy being outside the city. And they're now missing all of their hotspots in New York City, as everything's reopened. And as you see restaurants and the nightlife, what we are seeing in the luxury sector is that many New Yorkers that are diehard New Yorkers have taken this opportunity to buy their forever home. That is a trade up for them. And they-- whether it's a new development product, which we're seeing a tremendous amount of activity in that particular sector, they are buying whatever it is that's going to be able to keep them here for the long-term.

KRISTIN MYERS: I'm curious to know if tastes have changed at all for some of these folks, especially in the luxury market. Especially as the pandemic hit, we heard so many people talk about the desire to have a lawn, for example. Is that being translated in some of the clients that you have in terms of what they're looking for when they do buy something in Manhattan?

KIRSTEN JORDAN: Well, we are definitely seeing an uptick in the outdoor space requests. That's something that there's a tremendous scarcity of in general. And now it's something that is getting major, major demand. If you see, there was a project called the Benson, which is at 1045 Madison Avenue. You saw that basically what traded first of those particular apartments, because they're pretty much all gone now, were the outdoor space apartments. And those were the ones that had, like, even a small balcony because that's something that's becoming really, really advantageous because, of course, people want to get a little bit of fresh air. And it's something that I think really was highlighted during our quarantine.

The other thing that we're seeing-- and this was specifically indicated in this most recent report-- is people fleeing to quality completely turnkey product. And in the luxury market, we're seeing this new development product completely, completely out outperform the product that needs any sort of renovation. And additionally, that's usually a product where clients or buyers can also leverage. And they can actually buy with a mortgage and finance a significant portion of it, instead of the co-op product that you have on Park Avenue, where sometimes you can't finance more than 35% or even 25% of the purchase price.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I know that you do a lot of business with foreigners as well interested in the New York real estate market. I know that you speak Italian fluently, do a lot of business with the Italians. But what has it been like with foreign investors in real estate now? I know that the Saudis and the Chinese were very big at one point. Are you seeing that come back now?

KIRSTEN JORDAN: What we're seeing now is we're seeing demand that is virtual demand from these specific buyers. So I get calls on a regular basis from people who aren't able to come back to this city yet, but they are very interested in making sure that they are seeing the deals, finding out where the opportunities are, and maybe picking up a pied-á-terre or a little piece of New York City before there are no deals left to be had.

KRISTIN MYERS: And Kirsten, I'm just curious to know how you think the real estate market might be changing going forward, especially after we've had this pandemic. I know you highlighted some of the desires for that outdoor space. But are there any changes that need to be made for folks like yourself that are selling these homes? Is it going to be completely virtual, do you think, going forward? How do you think that the market is going to adjust and change, especially after we come out of lockdown?

KIRSTEN JORDAN: Well, I would say that the thing that has changed the most is exactly what you said. We are seeing a lot more virtual deals, sight unseen deals. I do think that the role of the real estate agent has changed because we are even more instrumental because we even do more legwork than we ever did before. Because often now, we go see product before our clients even come because we are used to being out in the field. And they know that we don't think of it as such a risk to go out and see the properties in advance for them. And often, people would like to have a virtual showing before they actually move their schedule around to be able to come see the property in person. So that's one thing that I think is going to change and continue to change for the future.

And then it's probably also going to be some sort of push towards being able to have some space for an office in your home. In a New York City, as you know, that's a pretty big ask to have another room. Because a lot of the time, everybody's pretty stretched in their apartments. And they really cannot afford to have another room. So that might push New Yorkers to other boroughs. We've seen Brooklyn on fire as far as their market. So that's just a small indicator of what I think is to come with additional push to these outer boroughs.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And before we let you go, a new season of "Million Dollar Listing New York" and a kick-off on Bravo May 6. You are part of that team. We're seeing some video from the season right now. Tell us what we can expect this season.

KIRSTEN JORDAN: Well, you can definitely expect to see a lot of me. I am everywhere and very, very excited to be there. It was a ton of fun. And I think you're going to see a lot of, I would say, intrigue, volatility. It's-- I mean, I've never been on the show before, but I understand it's the craziest season we've ever had. We filmed during COVID. We filmed after COVID. It's really, really incredible. And I think viewers are going to really get a kick out of it.

KRISTIN MYERS: Absolutely, we can't wait to all tune in on May 6. Kirsten Jordan, Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing New York," thanks so much for joining us today.