“It’s
the
same
story,
I
hate
to
say
but
people
just
aren’t
moving
yet,”
said
Lisa
Comito,
president
of

Greater
Bergen
Realtors
and
a
broker
at


Howard
Hanna
Rand
Realty.
“They’re
still
sitting
still.
So,
when
the
houses
do
come
on
the
market,
there
are
many
offers
—
if
it’s
priced
right.
If
the
home
is
overpriced,
it’ll
sit.”

But
is
the
market
starting
to
turn
away
from
sellers
and
toward
buyers?
There’s
a
flicker
of
data
from

Altos
Research
to
suggest
it
might
be.

First,
inventory
in
the
county
has
risen
32%
since
the
beginning
of
March.
Second,
the
share
of
listings
with
price
increases
has
been
declining
since
February,
when
it
was
at
1.7%.
It
now
sits
at
0.9%.

At
the
same
time,
the
percentage
of
listings
with
price
cuts
has
risen
from
a
low
point
of
9.5%
in
May
to
11%
today.
Taken
together,
this
could
signal
a
turn
in
the
market. 

But
some
context
is
needed
around
these
numbers.
For-sale
inventory
is
still
less
than
one-third
of
what
it
was
in
the
summer
of
2019,
so
recent
gains
would
have
to
sustain
for
the
market
to
be
truly
pushed
in
the
other
direction.
The
ratios
of
price
cuts
and
increases
are
also
blips
relative
to
the
huge
swings
seen
since
the
beginning
of
the
COVID-19
pandemic.

And
the
historic
lack
of
inventory
is
still
giving
sellers
the
upper
hand.
The
county’s
Market
Action
Index
score
from
Altos
Research
sits
at
52,
up
from
48
in
March.
The
index
considers
anything
above
30
to
be
indicative
of
a
seller’s
market. 

“We
sound
like
a
broken
record
because
every
year
we
say
[inventory]
will
be
lower
than
the
previous
year,”
said
Liliana
Militaru,
an
agent
at


Redfin.
“And
this
is
indeed
the
biggest
problem
that
we
are
facing,
in
fact,
because
we
are
next
to
Manhattan.
The
quality
of
life
in
Manhattan
has
declined
in
the
last
couple
of
years,
and
this
drives
a
lot
more
families
to
the
suburbs,
especially
families
with
young
kids.”

It’s
worth
noting
that
a
new
report
from


Douglas
Elliman
and

Miller
Samuel
shows
that

Manhattan
is
turning
into
a
buyers
market.

Agents
are
seeing
a
lot
of
cash
buyers.
If
a
house
on
the
market
is
priced
appropriately,
it
might
receive
as
many
as
30
offers
in
a
short
period
of
time,
creating
a
bidding
war.
In
almost
all
instances,
agents
say
the
seller
will
prefer
the
cash
offer
to
avoid
a
potential
problem
with
the
buyer’s
mortgage
killing
the
deal.

The
cash
buyers
—
some
of
whom
are
deep-pocketed
Manhattanites
—
temper
the
effect
of
high
interest
rates
on
the
market
because
they
don’t
need
a
mortgage.
This
has
helped
push
the
median
home
price
in
Bergen
County
from
$700,000
at
the
onset
of
the
pandemic
to
$925,000
today.

“Historically,
every
time
interest
rates
would
rise,
there
would
be
a
little
bit
of
a
slowdown
in
market
activity,
but
as
you
can
see
in
the
stats,
that’s
not
true
at
all,”
said
Attilio
Adamo,
a
veteran
Bergen
County
broker

who
joined

SERHANT.
in
June.