In a “stuck” market, agile buyers are winning.

Last week four of my clients got the keys to their new homes, in a market that is supposedly stuck.

This was a personal record week for me: four closings across the Hamptons, Manhattan and Brooklyn. It came with interest rates up and the outlook for another increase before the year is out, with Manhattan carrying 11 percent fewer listings than a year ago, and with contracts signed in September down 19 percent in Manhattan and 6 percent in Brooklyn.

What has not fallen is price. Manhattan contracts signed in September averaged $1,549 a square foot, within a quarter of a percent of last September. Brooklyn’s recorded sales were up 3 percent a foot. Fewer buyers, fewer listings, flat prices. For a prepared buyer that is the opening, and it is what my four clients took: prime properties at prices that have barely moved in a year, with less competition than they would have faced in 2021 or will likely face next spring.

Meanwhile the buyers who are waiting are renting, at eye-popping prices. Manhattan’s average rent hit a record $6,865 in September and the median rose 9 percent to $5,395, while Brooklyn had its busiest September for leases since 2020. Those are the people who come back to buy the moment rates ease. When they do, I expect flat prices to shoot up, and the buyers who moved this fall will have bought before the line formed.

This week’s ten run from a $1,125,000 prewar loft in Chelsea to a $33,000,000 penthouse in the West Village. Eight are in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. If one pulls at you, reply and we’ll set up a private tour.