The Price is High, But Manhattanites Are Buying It
As Brooklyn real estate got pricier and pricer in the ’00s, a greater number of Manhattanites moved here, according to an article in the Observer. IRS data shows that more than 3,700 Manhattan residents moved to Brooklyn in 2006 (the most recent year for which such stats are available), the most this decade. At the…
As Brooklyn real estate got pricier and pricer in the ’00s, a greater number of Manhattanites moved here, according to an article in the Observer. IRS data shows that more than 3,700 Manhattan residents moved to Brooklyn in 2006 (the most recent year for which such stats are available), the most this decade. At the same time, more than 10,000 Brooklynites have moved to either Staten Island or Queens every year since ’02. The point of the article is that while Brooklyn has continued to get more expensive (per Miller Samuel, median condo/co-op price in Manhattan in ’07=$850,000; per Corcoran, median price for a brownstone Brooklyn unit last year was $590,000) and the pricing gulf between the two has narrowed, moving to Brooklyn is no longer driven purely by economic necessity: “Perhaps it’s that Brooklyn has ceased to be simply another economic option for priced-out Manhattanites; instead, it’s now safer than ever to assume that moving to Brooklyn is more of a social or personal decision than an economic one. It will only become more so as real estate differences between the two melt away.”
Where Brooklyn Gets Its New Yorkers [NY Observer]
Graphic by Nigel Holmes for The Observer
This post really gives insight into the dichotomy of the former Manhattanites who moved to Brooklyn because they HAD to ($$) and those of us who moved here because we truly love it and actually prefer it over Manhattan.
I don’t hate Manhattan…I realize that I’d probably not be living in Brooklyn if Manhattan didn’t exist, but there is NO WAY I’m interested in living there again.
Park Slope is where I’ll be for a long, long time.
The Upper East Side???
I think I’d rather live in Queens that on the Upper East Side.
Seriously, BTG, you aren’t serious are you?
I find the UES the most boring, unfriendly neighborhood in Manhattan.
Just because you want to live the Gossip Girl life, does not mean we all do.
Hi, former Manhattanite 11:32 here again. BTG, I can emphatically and honestly say that I would most definitely stay in Park Slope over the Upper East Side. The UES is sooo not my taste!
Again, to each his or her own….
screw you guys, i’m with 10:57 and 11:28. i’m stayin’ in brooklyn no matter how many times i get mugged.
Bullshit….if you could afford a brownstone on the UES you’d live there in a heartbeat over Brooklyn
You know, people can have different preferences and it doesn’t mean they are ignorant hicks. Our preferences also change as we get older… I lived in downtown Manhattan for 20 years, and now I’ve been in BK for 1.5 years. There are pros and cons to both boroughs. I think it is mostly folks who are newer to the city (or maybe just very young) who think Manhattan is the only place to be. That was me 10 and 20 years ago.
But as I got older, some things about living in Manhattan seemed more irritating to me than they had before. Some examples: coming home and finding some drunk yahoo taking a leak on my front door; throngs of tourists everywhere; and, of course, the ever-present marauding bands of NJ bachelorette parties, screeching into the night air as they whoop it up on their big night out in the big city. This doesn’t at all mean that I hate Manhattan now. I still love it, but I love Brooklyn too.
Preferring Brooklyn over Manhattan means you are the kind of person who likes vintage over H&M, Magic Mountain over Disney World, Gorilla over Starfuckers, Mom and Pops over the Mall of America, and Maggie Gyllenhall over Mary Kate Olsen.
I’ll take Brooklyn.
i think not being able to post once shows you are more of an “uneducated hick”
10:57, sorry but prefering Brooklyn over Manhatttan shows that you are really an uneducated hick. I like it here, but please!!