Broadway<\/a> producer paid a record price for an apartment previously owned by another producer, had drama after a decade in which the apartment went on and off the market.<\/p>\n\u201cREBNY has been a steady force behind New York\u2019s real estate community in good times and bad,\u201d master of ceremonies Dave Price said of the more than 130-year-old\u00a0 group. \u201cRegardless of what side of the aisle you sit on.\u201d<\/p>\n
While to many, affordability is the key apartment issue, the group at this event raised money to help brokers facing adversity, from medical to financial.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe member in need fund is one of the most meaningful ways that REBNY supports our members,\u201d Beth Gittleman, of Compass, said.
\n![\"lareg](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-estate-ceremony-claude-solnik.jpg\" "\\"Real")
Nearly 400 people attended the ceremony.Photo by Claude Solnik\n<\/p>\n
Maria Octavio, of City Sphere, on video said the fund helped her amid cancer and\u00a0 Covid. \u201cIt\u2019s good to know that we have this umbrella that can help take the rain away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While real estate has become a battleground amid talk of new taxes and concerns over exits from New York, many said and statistics support that much of the market remains robust.<\/p>\n
Manhattan residential prices as of March were up 6.0%\u00a0 year over year to a median price of $1.3 million, according to Redfin.\n<\/p>\n
Jonathan Helfer, a partner at Romer Debras, which handles a wide range of real estate transactions, quoted a colleague who referred to a \u201ctwo-speed market\u201d depending on location and condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a big uptick in the market particularly the higher end with more volume in transactions,\u201d Helfer said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing more bidding wars and multiple offers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes a return to the office with fewer remote workers and low inventory drive demand. \u201cIt\u2019s not the foreign money we saw years ago,\u201d Helfer added.<\/p>\n
Cathy Hobbs, owner of staging company Cathy Hobbs Design Recipes, said she is seeing \u201ca tremendous amount of movement\u201d with highest end properties \u201cnot moving as quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re New Yorkers, people coming back to the city,\u201d she said. \u201cFamilies buying two and three properties that are move-in ready. They\u2019re not looking for a lot of worry and work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jessica Cloonan, a licensed real estate broker at Corcoran and winner of last year\u2019s rental deal of the year, said uncertainty takes its toll.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBuyers are still timid,\u201d she said, \u201cand we are all collectively working harder to help them understand that the market is growing stronger.\u201d
\n![\"group](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/043026_REBNY_GM_-181.jpg\" "\\"Real")
Experts at the ceremony came from across the real estate industry.Photo by Jill Lotenberg\n<\/p>\n
She added that in addition to Manhattan, \u201cBrooklyn continues to be hot,\u201d although buyers are \u201cmore timid\u201d about coops.<\/p>\n
Talk of a possible pied a terre tax and incentive cuts remain a backdrop to a still robust market.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are afraid and think that New York does not want their money,\u201d Cloonan said. \u201cIn reality, New York does very well through real estate.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Deal of a lifetime<\/p>\n
The Residential Sale of the Year award went to Rick Kelly, who founded Alta Real Estate four years ago, representing the seller, and Jeremy Stein of Sotheby\u2019s International Realty who represented the buyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real estate market is very active in New York City, because people are still buying a New York for all of the right reasons,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great long-term investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly handled the sale of a penthouse in the Theater District where sales efforts failed for a decade.\u00a0 \u201cMost saw a dead deal,\u201d Compass Co-chair Rebecca\u00a0 Mason said. \u201cHe saw an opportunity and a challenge worth taking on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly said the \u201capartment was a memory\u201d for the owner who eventually sold it to another Broadway producer bought for $6.6 million.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
They closed the deal after negotiating how to handle auction agreement fees, marking one of Midtown\u2019s highest resales in recent years.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness is great,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cWhen you do a really difficult sale, it makes you believe in yourself even more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Deal makers<\/p>\n
The Residential Rental Deal of the Year Award went to Dakota\u00a0Scotto\u00a0and Lawrence Rich of Compass for a penthouse rental \u2013 where they opted out of an offer.<\/p>\n
When an initial above-asking price offer ran into problems and missed deadlines, they went with another buyer at asking price. The brokers later found out the person who made the initial offer was arrested on serious charges.<\/p>\n
Bess Freedman of Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC was greeted with a standing ovation when she won The Henry Forster Memorial Award, while William Abramson of\u00a0Buchbinder\u00a0& Warren won The Eileen\u00a0Spinola\u00a0Award for Distinguished Service.<\/p>\n
Abramson said it was a privilege to win that award \u201cand to now join the prestigious group of previous recipients.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Beth Gittleman of Compass was named Residential Agent of the Year and Lauren\u00a0Weigand\u00a0of Compass won as Residential Rookie of the Year.\n<\/p>\n
Sara Rotter, of Brown Harris Stevens, said Weigand has \u201cbeen instrumental in record setting deals.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t just enter the industry. She made an entrance,\u201d Robert Glessman of Douglas Elliman added. \u201cOnce she started, she didn\u2019t slow down.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Barbara Fox of\u00a0Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales and John Wollberg of Side won the\u00a0Industry\u00a0Champion\u00a0Award.\n<\/p>\n
While some residents eye exits, many nationwide are looking toward New York City. From October to\u00a0December of 2025,\u00a0 32% of\u00a0Manhattan\u00a0homebuyers considered moving out of\u00a0Manhattan, while\u00a068% searched within the metropolitan area, according to Redfin.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, 3% of homebuyers nationwide searched to move into\u00a0Manhattan, led by Los Angeles\u00a0homebuyers, Redfin said. Miami\u00a0was the most popular destination among\u00a0Manhattan\u00a0residents moving elsewhere, followed by\u00a0Boston\u00a0and\u00a0Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Interest rates haven\u2019t lowered sale prices as the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.18 percent in March, from 6.05 percent in February, below 6.65 percent a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis event is always a fantastic opportunity to connect,\u201d Rebecca Mason, of Compass, said as the night drew to a close. \u201cIt\u2019s even more meaningful to know that tonight\u2019s proceeds will provide future members in need grants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 400 people working in and with the New York City real estate industry, from brokers to builders,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":770638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5249,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,24844,315947,98316,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-770637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-real-estate-board-of-new-york","tag-real-estate-awards","tag-rebny","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116511308830019016","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}