Is It a Buyer's or Seller's Market in Townhouses?
Here’s an email we received from a reader this week: I was hoping you could foment some sort of discussion on the summer brooklyn townhouse market. I can’t really figure out what’s going on. It seems like a lot of stuff is left over from the spring, but then some great stuff just flies off…
Here’s an email we received from a reader this week:
I was hoping you could foment some sort of discussion on the summer brooklyn townhouse market. I can’t really figure out what’s going on. It seems like a lot of stuff is left over from the spring, but then some great stuff just flies off the shelf. I’ve been to dozens of open houses the past few weeks, some are empty, some are thronged. I can’t tell if it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. It seems like a lot of people are waiting for the fall to see what comes on the market. What’s your sense?
Seems to us like there’s not a lot of good inventory and that buyers aren’t desperate enough to go for the crap. Your thoughts?
Photo by Da Nator
after peaking in ’87, there was quite a decline I’d say. Could happen again, no? I wouldn’t put money on it, but always worth considering that it IS within the realm of possibility…
10:44 here – ok, I was embellishing a little bit. We are not going into forclosure (just closed last month!) but as husband is freelance and hasn’t worked in a couple of months and he’s the one who brings in the bacon things are feeling dicey. We took out $160,000 as an ARM so things are not looking pretty with these rising rates. Luckily, I think the $25,000 reno we’ve almost completed will add about $200k to the value, so if things go down the pot it will not be an utter disaster if we have to sell.
Not IN 1987. FROM 1987. That was the peak.
It’s a seller’s market for brownstones in the most desireable areas covered by this web site.
All the doomsayers are out of touch with reality and have not been in the market.
Anyone in the market like the ft green buyer above will tell you it is not only a seller’s market but a strong seller’s market.
Mozillo was not talking about 3million dollar brownstones people
correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t real estate decline more like 30 or even 40% in nyc in 1987? not 5%..
11:55 —
“probably san diego, florida and las vegas (which comparing them to nyc is almost stupid of me anyway) the prices have dropped on average of 15% and have started to rebound again slightly.”
That does not correspond to what Countrywide Financial said yesterday. They don’t see the market turning around until at least 2009. And I don’t know if they said how much they believe it has dropped already, but “the worst since the Depression” sounds like more than 15%. They said the Case-Shiller index was a good reflection of the market, if anyone wants to check.
i thought about philly a couple years ago also and spent quite a bit of time there. looked all around center city and found some great deals on some nice looking places.
one problem. it’s philadelphia.
with the housing boom now over there, the sense of prosperity (which for philadelphia to feel that is quite a feat) and it is now in decline again.
crime is horrendous and getting worse over the past two years (even in the prime areas) and businesses that flourished 2 years ago are closing up shop.
south street 3 years ago was so much fun, and now all the hip stores are gone.
philadelphia is way too prone to even the slightest ups and downs in the economy for my taste.
but i do still love it. parts are incredibly charming.
My fiance and I are in the market for a brownstone in Ft Greene and we are finding that the stock is tiny to non-existent, and that everything decent is snapped up. Am hoping that more properties come on the market in fall. So for now, my take (for brownstones at least) is sellers market.
11:47,
Did you adjust for inflation? Did your income stay the same when the market rebounded? I heard there was like a 25-40% correction the last time around after inflation. Also, this is the biggest national housing bubble in U.S./Brooklyn history.