New Yorkers Flee the City to Escape Pandemic, Protests 

Between the pandemic and recent protests, some New Yorkers have had their fill of the Big Apple and cannot move to the suburbs fast enough. Realtors are reporting an influx of city dwellers to homes in suburbs on Long Island and north of the city, and the competition for a quiet, suburban home is stiff as bidding wars erupt over homes with offices perfect for the new normal of remote work. Some homebuyers are signing contracts before they even step foot in the home, instead opting to see the property via video tour– the sooner they can move, the better.

New York, I love you, but you’re getting me down, as LCD Soundsystem once sang. After three months besieged by the coronavirus pandemic, New Yorkers are heading for the suburbs – and some say they are never coming back.

Real estate brokers are describing a boom in demand for homes north of the city and on Long Island – and especially those that offer space for home offices. Competition is so fierce, says Madeline Wiebicke, a real estate broker in New City, an affluent hamlet some 20 miles from Manhattan, that city dwellers are snapping up suburban properties in bidding wars, often after just a video tour.

Demand for homes, say brokers, is fuelled not only by fears that coronavirus infections in densely populated urban areas could rise again next winter, but also by fundamental shifts in demand from in-office to remote workers, and by the protests following the police killing of George Floyd that have dominated New York’s streets.

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