NY Lawmakers Approve Final Budget That Includes Second-Home Tax

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You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Carol Massar** (0:14)
Confidence among US homebuilders slipped in June, dragged down by rising mortgage rates, materials costs, a sharp drop in sentiment across the South. Let's talk about that index of overall market conditions from the National Association of Homebuilders in Wells Fargo, it fell two points to 35 this month. That's according to data released on Monday. It's lower Carol in the 37 anticipated by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The South, this is interesting. It's the nation's largest homebuilding region, saw its biggest decline going back to November 2023

**Tim Stenovec** (0:41)
I'm not surprised because it's gotten a little overheated in certain, certainly in the Southeast in some markets. Hey, we are curious though about what's going on in New York City. It's a real estate market we're all obsessed with. A story comes across the Bloomberg about real estate in New York City. It is among the most read. For more, we're joined by Lisa Lippman. She's a real estate agent with Brown Harris Stevens. She's been in the industry for nearly three decades, had more than $500 million in transaction volume in 2025 alone.

**Carol Massar** (1:08)
What?

**Tim Stenovec** (1:10)
Oh my God. She's here in studio, our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Is that a lot?

**Carol Massar** (1:16)
That's a ton.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:17)
It feels like a ton.

**Lisa Lippman** (1:18)
It's a lot. I mean, I've been the number one person at Brown Harris for 11 years in a row.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:23)
Congratulations.

**Lisa Lippman** (1:25)
Thank you. In prior years, I was doing someplace between 210 and 290, 300 million per year.
Last year was a really big year. I think partially, it's the progression of time. I have a lot of repeat business, the people get wealthier, they come back to me at higher price points, you work in that price point, more people in that price point come to you. Then I also had a couple of really large sales that contributed to it. I worked really, really hard last year. I became an empty nester the fall of 2024 My youngest child went away, he actually did a gap year.
I guess I thought maybe I'd pick up the guitar or Mahjong or something, but I just worked more.

**Carol Massar** (2:14)
How's this year looking?

**Lisa Lippman** (2:16)
This year is definitely headed in the right direction. Honestly, I don't ever think I'm going to do that volume again.
In some ways, I say that's okay with me. Of course, it would be great to do it, but I do think that last year was a bit anomalous because I'm one person. I have a very small team, there's only five of us. So you do see those large numbers with agents who have very large teams. You sometimes see those numbers with agents who sit on big buildings where they're selling only really expensive big listings. Having said that, they don't get paid necessarily on that volume, and you should know that because it's sometimes, you're selling 700 million worth of business, but the commission on it is very low.

**Carol Massar** (2:57)
Because they struck a deal with the developer.

**Lisa Lippman** (2:59)
You're dividing amongst five other agents who are on the building. So last year was a really good year for me, and I take it as I put money in the bank and it's a great year, and I'll probably go back to doing my really good years again, but not that.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:14)
So when you're dealing with wealthier individuals, do they care about the interest rate? Like, do things like that matter?
Are they doing mostly cash deals? I'm just curious, because a lot of times when we talk about the housing market and generally the real estate market, when it comes to purchasing certainly for first time home buyers, we watch what's going on in the rates market. Does it matter to a lot of your clientele?

**Lisa Lippman** (3:36)
So generally when you're talking about over $7 or $8 million purchases, interest rates become basically immaterial. And I say basically, because people who are spending over $8, $10 million know what's going on, right? They're very much in the business world. So when they're negotiating, when they're making a deal, they're going to think about the fact that interest rates are higher. So they feel that they should have more buying power as a cash buyer because interest rates are higher, and they're not wrong. So anecdotally, it matters.
Does it actually matter? No, because they were never going to finance, but they do think about it. And of course, it changes the equation because, you know, when interest rates were very low, we had people spending over eight or $10 million who were really financing a very large portion. And now the people spending that kind of money are really just cash buyers.