[Crawford]

True, but the Manhattan condo market has nothing to do with "normal people". And 220 CPS is occupied by NY families, not random billionaire investors. The seller is a billionaire New Yorker, in finance, with three kids.

Back in 2020-21, when people were discussing pandemic effects on NY real estate, they were usually talking about the 1% temporarily ensconced in the Hamptons or Berkshires or Palm Beach. So the kind of people who live in 220 CPS.

I don't think anyone was seriously arguing that random teachers and plumbers in Queens moved. Working and middle class neighborhoods in NYC didn't have any type of outmigration.

And, yeah, while just one sale, it illustrates the fact that 2021 was, by far, the most successful year for high end real estate in NYC history. Which makes sense, since 2020 was terrible. All the unmet demand from 2020 was packed into 2021. It's the same reason that current suburban sales volume is terrible. All the current demand was already packed into 2020.

So basically the entire pandemic-era narrative was wrong. It was just that suburban/rural areas had an unusually good 2020, because all the demand for a few years was packed into a year, and now it's the urban market's time to shine, until the markets are back to the pre-pandemic equilibrium. In the long run, it appears nothing really changed.