Hey everyone, it's James at Yoreevo, New York's #1 commission rebate brokerage with our March 2024 Manhattan Market Update, but we're actually going to start with something other than the market this month. We're going to start with NAR settlement. You probably saw this in the news. And so we wanted to briefly touch on what the settlement does and what it does not do. If you talk to a glib agent in New York City, they're going to tell you that it doesn't do anything in New York City, which is technically true, but they either don't know what they're talking about or they're trying to mislead you because the justification for that position is REBNY is not affiliated with NAR and therefore not bound to NAR settlement, which is true. However, REBNY is facing a lawsuit that is near, nearly identical to the one that REBNY settled. So to think that they wouldn't implement policies that are similar or even identical to those in the settlement seems a bit foolish. So we're going to look at NAR settlement and just assume that it is eventually implemented in New York City as well. So the main thing that the settlement did is it prohibits the advertising of cobrokes that's payments to buyers agents via the MLS. And it also requires buyer agents to have a signed agreement with their buyer before they see a property. And the agreement needs to specify how much the buyer's agent is going to be paid. And that needs to be a fixed amount, either percentage or dollar amount. It can't be open -ended, something like whatever the seller is willing to pay me, which is basically what it is now. So those are significant, but not as significant as the headlines might have you believe because it does not prevent sellers from paying buyer's agents. Sellers can and will continue to pay buyer agents. They just can't advertise a blanket offer of commission to all of the buyer agents via the MLS, but they can in other ways. And it also does not directly reduce commissions. You probably saw headlines about the 6% commission ending. That is not true. Sellers will continue to pay 6% after these policies are implemented over the summer. While there may be some additional pressure on buyer agent commissions from buyers who are a bit more in the know, there are still going to be plenty of sellers paying 6%. So a lot of this is still in flux. It hasn't been implemented yet. So there are some logistics that need to be figured out. And also it still needs to be approved by a judge. So TBD on how much of this will actually be implemented, but this is what we're working with right now. So now getting over to the market, we had a pretty solid March. The headline numbers, they make it seem weaker than it actually was because of the comparisons last year. So when we look at demand on a year-over-year basis, we are down 14% and down 2% versus normalized levels of demand. But if you look at the chart here, you can see why this is not as bad as it seems. The results last year, for whatever reason, were very erratic. We had a very strong March, then a very weak April, then a very strong May. So in my mind, I'm kind of smoothing all of that out and we're basically in line with last year's demand. So we have a weak March and then we're gonna have a strong April, but really it's kind of the same for both of them. When we look at this by price point, again I would chalk this up to the erratic comparisons last year, but this is the chart we always like to look at. So we did cool down a little bit, but we're basically in line with normal levels of demand, so it's fine. On inventory, same story there, we're continuing to see tight inventory. We're down about 5%, so that's what's really supporting prices, no change there. And part of the reason that the market isn't really changing much is because mortgage rates haven't really changed that much. We're bouncing around 6.75%, so basically 6.5-7% is kind of what we've been seeing for the last few months. TBD on what The Fed's gonna do later this year, but the interest rate market has been very stable. Let's put it that way. So in all, market's pretty good. We're waiting to see how NAR settlement is implemented in New York and elsewhere. We'll continue to keep an eye on that. We'll keep you updated, but in the meantime if you're in the market, obviously we'd be happy to help you buy and get a commission rebate for up to 2% on any property in New York City, so you can reach out to us at info@yoreevo.com. So thanks for watching and we will see you next month. Bye!