Gen Z and young millennials face the prospect of renting with their parents for the foreseeable future, as getting onto the property market feels increasingly impossible. However, The Corcoran Group CEO Pamela Liebman, who has weathered 40 years in real estate, says today’s struggles are no more extraordinary than those faced by other generations.
Liebman has worked her way up Corcoran Group’s ranks since joining as an agent in 1984 at just 23 years old. During that time, she has witnessed major crashes and numerous market shifts. And she says it was just as hard getting that first home now as it was 30 years ago. That’s in New York, at least.
“It is just as tough,” Liebman exclusively tells Fortune. “Back then, it was more difficult in some ways because you had less neighborhoods that people would live.”
“If you think back to the 80s, the meat packing district wasn’t this highly desirable district,” Liebman explains. “All these areas in Brooklyn that are number one on people’s list, they weren’t there. So you were sort of getting jammed into these, these few neighborhoods, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, maybe a little bit of Chelsea, and Flat Iron—I don’t even think we called it Flat Iron back then, Tribeca was just coming around. So everyone was squished in the same places.”
