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
I see little for sale in Carroll Gard/Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill.
Ones that come up for sale and in very good condition seem to go quickly at prices that seem unreasonable.
Some listings have been on for awhile – needing much work, fringe spot but asking top price, or Rent Control tenant. (there is one for sale on Baltic now with a rent control in lower duplex and 2 free markets apts above. 1st time I’ve seem controlled duplex).
funny this is, i don’t really think that many people were really saying nyc is completely immune to all of this, 11:48.
it was the people who like to pretend like they know everything on this board by telling people…”what…are you stupid…you think nyc is immune” that really kept those conversations going.
i’d say there are but a handful of people who ACTUALLY think that nyc is immune. nyc, for all it’s issues has relatively intelligent people for the most part.
and btw, i agree almost totally with 11:47. while the bottom might fall out on nyc real estate as they say, the price drops will be barely noticeable. that’s the way these things work. even in the WORST hit market…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.
if we saw an average of 5% drop here in nyc, that would be a lot. and then, as the cycle continues, the prices will go back up again as they always do.
i welcome the end to this cycle. means the next wave up is that much closer…
I agree with Prospective Buyer that Brooklyn is changing, and not necessarily for the better. My husband and I loved Park Slope when we first moved there in 1999 (bought a 1-BR in a brownstone for $120K–imagine that!), but the neighborhood turned into the Upper West Side–rich and privileged–very soon afterward. He’s Brooklyn born and bred, so when we started looking around Brooklyn for houses, it was really sad to realize that there was no way we could afford a house in PS, PH, or even Windsor Terrace. So we ended up moving to Philadelphia. While we both miss Brooklyn terribly, we now have a 4-story historic house near Independence Hall that’s been completely gut-renovated, with central AC and new kitchen–for about the same as a 2- or 3-BR co-op in PS. We’ve found some great restaurants and found that the people in our neighborhood are much friendlier and more open-minded than those in PS. It’s a trade-off–not as many cool, hip places, but in exchange we have 2,000 sq. ft. of house, no co-op headaches and expenses, and parking for a lot less than PS. There IS life after Brooklyn, Prospective Buyer–not the same, but better in a lot of ways.
I think this is a useful discussion. The ratio of “bubble bursting, NYC is not immune” to “Brooklyn is special and will always appreciate” has really shifted over the last week or so.
I wonder how much impact the quote from the head of Countrywide Financial (rate of housing depreciation unmatched by any time since the Depression,or something to that effect) will have on NYC market psychology.
I remember being astounded in both 70’s and the early 90’s when the market tanked, that even though RE prices did drop on what was the current hot spots (for me that was tribeca), prices really did not go down that much after having soared thru the roof. Then once the economy rebounded 5 years later, prices had only settled 5% and started going up again! I had wanted to buy something in tribeca and thought the tank would happen, so I waited, but prices never really went down the way they did in the rest of the country, so I never got in. so this time around, I went ahead and bought a brownstone (a very good one in a nice spot) in brooklyn and my guess is that prices will go down a little, but then in 5 years, they will start to climb again. the desirable areas seem to hold their value in NYC. so if you are thinking prices in Bstone brooklyn are going to plummet and you’re waiting, I think you might be making the same mistake I made years ago. they will not go back down to 2000 prices unfortunately.
Alive right, 11:36. It’s harder to get a mortgage now. Your third statement supports my point. Wall St bonuses are based on the global credit bubble which is slated to go “pop”. Next year might be good but it’s gonna get worse and worse.
Oh, and we could also have a sharing of fake “I’m underwater posts” and then we could invite Lisa in with raised fist to comment on the outrages of capitalism in Greenwood Heights…. Another 120 posts.
Oh, yawn. Why not do the rent vs buy argument for another 50 posts. Then we could talk about PLG and invite the troll in and then the jokesters on Forum and we could have a 200+. Then we could have an uninformed discussion about sub-prime mortgages, another 50+
ZZZZZZZZZ………
Anybody else out there “underwater” and care to share (thanks 10:44 – takes guts)? Very informative.