The city real estate market is not giving the Trump Organization a presidential welcome, according to a new study.
Online rental platform Zumper examined how units in seven buildings owned by the Trump Organization fared after the election, compared to the trajectory of homes in similar, nearby residential buildings, and determined apartments marketed under the Trump name have suffered since the election.
“The hypothesis we set out to test was that, if a negative Trump effect did exist, units in Trump buildings would show longer time on market and deeper price cuts post-election when compared with control buildings,” Zumper wrote in its analysis. “In five of seven building pairs, units in Trump-owned buildings performed worse over the post-election period when compared to non-Trump buildings, meaning that there was in fact a negative effect.”
In all, the study looked at 377 units on the market between December 2015 and October 2017. The firm studied seven buildings owned by the Trump Organization — which President Donald Trump oversaw before taking office, but is now managed by his sons and others — and seven nearby buildings constructed around the same time with comparable building heights, interior finishes, amenities and price ranges.
Apartments in three Trump Organization buildings spent, on average, more time on the market after the election, while their counterparts’ units began leasing more quickly once the polls closed, Zumper found.
Five Trump Organization buildings had larger declines in rental rates after the election than the control buildings they were paired with, the study noted.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The trends highlighted by Zumper did not, however, extend to what the platform defines as affordable units in the Trump Organization’s portfolio.
The study noted that Trump Organization apartments available for $2,500 to $4,000 a month were rented just as quickly after the election as they were before it — even when neighboring units in the same building struggled.
“In the end, New York is still the most competitive housing market in the country, meaning that affordable deals in solid locations still get rented quickly, despite any potential stigma,” Zumper noted.
