Private equity is dealmaking again. After a long freeze driven by high borrowing costs and a wide gap between buyer and seller expectations, New York's buyout firms are announcing acquisitions at the fastest pace in years.

The thaw has rippled across the city's financial ecosystem, reviving fees for the bankers, lawyers, and consultants who orchestrate transactions. The fictional firm Ashford Partners says it has closed more deals this quarter than in the previous year combined.

The revival is fueled in part by mountains of committed capital that firms had to deploy. Whether the pace holds depends on financing costs, but for now the deal machine that powers much of New York's finance economy is humming again.