Olshan's Luxury Market Report reveals that New York's residential real estate market is poised to hit a 2021 record high. The numbers of signed contracts for properties valued at over $4 million is doubling year over year. That's a good way off the 2014 benchmark numbers.

"People are now excited about real estate and are hedging against inflation, and buying because they want to rather than because they have to," reveals Ryan Serhant, founder and CEO of Serhant.

The first half of 2021 saw a record number of residential contracts signed, with activity rising across all price points. For Sargant, domestic buyers drove the market. The expectation is that the buying momentum will continue in the third and fourth quarters as European and other international buyers return to the market.

According to Terrence Harding of Compass Union Square, "everything increased after Labor Day."

"There is now more activity as people want to settle and are trying to settle back," he notes.

The surprise is the rental market, which began to take off in mid-July. The incentives and rental reductions of previous months are no longer there.

"Rents are out of control," echoes real estate broker Lauren Muss of Douglas Elliman.

As far as luxury residential sales are concerned, "inventory is picking up," and downtown condos are doing especially well.

The so-called "Covid discount" is still being done. "All the brokers are full of work: the energy is back. We are back is what people need to know," Muss remarked.