New York City homeowners are cutting prices in a way not seen since the financial crisis

Sarah Jacobs/Business Insider

Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

• The number of New York City home sellers who cut their asking prices spiked to the highest level since 2009 during the week after Labor Day, according to StreetEasy.
• The real-estate website also saw its biggest wave of new listings around the same period, as sellers tried to attract New Yorkers who were returning from their summer vacations.
• Unlike 2009, the housing market is in much better shape.

In one way, it's 2009 all over again in New York City's housing market.

The number of home sellers who cut their asking prices reached the highest level since 2009 during the week after Labor Day, according to StreetEasy.

Sellers needed to be more aggressive with pricing because buyers had many more choices. Grant Long, a senior economist at StreetEasy, said the listings website saw its biggest two weeks for new listings at the same time, as sellers moved to entice New Yorkers who were returning from their summer vacations. This only worsened an existing glut of for-sale inventory on the market.

Homeowners cut prices on 774 properties, more than the previous record of 713 set in March 2009, StreetEasy said. That represented nearly 5% of all homes, which was the highest since February 2009.

That year was when StreetEasy started tracking the data, amid an economic recession that was blamed largely on the housing market's crash. Even though the year brings back painful memories for many homeowners, the market is a lot healthier now.

If there's any talk of a new housing crisis, it's the shortage of relatively affordable inventory for the droves of buyers. And there will be many more buyers to come, as millennials mature and work to achieve the life goal that is homeownership.

"In this climate, with high inventory and price cuts, the tips for buyers we offered over the summer remain as relevant as ever: Be picky, be patient, and be prepared to negotiate," Long wrote.

StreetEasy

Now read:

• JPMorgan studied decades of market history and compiled a playbook for guarding against losses in the next recession
• A fund manager who's crushing nearly all of her peers breaks down 3 under-the-radar stocks driving her strong performance

• UBS details all the possible outcomes of the midterm elections and why a so-called blue tsunami could be the most devastating for stocks