Party Like It's 2005: Bidding Wars Galore
Remember the Times article last week about the reinvigorated real estate market in New York? Well, there may have been something to it. We’ve caught wind of a couple of bidding wars currently underway that certainly show that the demand side of the equation is strong. First up: A 1,350-square-foot, top-floor co-op at 235 Lincoln…
Remember the Times article last week about the reinvigorated real estate market in New York? Well, there may have been something to it. We’ve caught wind of a couple of bidding wars currently underway that certainly show that the demand side of the equation is strong. First up: A 1,350-square-foot, top-floor co-op at 235 Lincoln Place. The first showing on Sunday generated eight bids, six of them over the asking price of $795,000. (Of course, another conclusion could be simply that it was just priced too low.) Meanwhile, over at 218 Greene Avenue (which we discussed last week), the price was jacked almost 30 percent over the weekend. After it was listed at $650,000 on Wednesday, we hear that offers of up to $825,000 rolled in, prompting a swift price increase of the asking price to $850,000. How psyched is the owner. Guess the POS at 220 Greene was not much a deterrent after all.
235 Lincoln Place (#5761) [Warren Lewis] GMAP
218 Greene Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP
yente…yes, i can totally see how that would be the case and part of the allure of brooklyn for many people, including myself are the stories and ideas of yesteryear. thing is…the good old days are over for now. in talking about real estate, things have changed siginificantly and while i long for the idea of mom and pop stores on every corner, kids playing in the street, all that good stuff, i think there may now be a period of blandness in nyc which hopefully sometime soon people will begin to rebel against and turn the tide once again. sadly though, every time you hear about somebody doing something new, interesting or edgy they are criticized for it these days, whereas at one point, it was embraced. all of these social things are in a way connected to real estate i suppose, but i’m in agreement with you in general.
i guess i had no point.
i think that part of the reason the conversation heats up so much when talking about nyc real estate prices is that people (lots of bitter renters i’m guessing) like to throw out the word crash quite easily. while san franscisco’s prices have fallen a bit here and there (and maybe nyc’s will too at some point in the future) it’s never going to be a situation where you can buy a brownstone again for under a million dollars in an ok neighborhood.
this is why people get defensive. those circumstances that provided for classic 6 apts on the upper west side for 100K don’t exist anymore. there will be no crash. nyc will not BECOME affordable again barring multiple horrific and significant life altering events.
prices will go up and down, yes. but nothing of significance on the downside, i don’t believe to make a crash impending. if you haven’t bought yet and want to, i suggest you save your pennies and borrow from family or whatever it takes because i just don’t see that things will ever be truly affordable here again. nor will they in san francisco, london, sydney, paris or any other terrific big city in the world.
10:55/12:33: I’m 41 and have lived here all my life. The “horrible days” you refer to were actually the “good old days” to some of us. The city was more diverse, unique and exciting. I don’t speak for every native NYer, but I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Just wanted to let you know.
12:56: “San Francisco’s market is an incredible example of ever-growing value – even during the dot.bomb era, the prices did not inch down.”
San Francisco’s market has decreased quite a bit in the last few months. Prices for the last quarter of ’06 are lower than those for same quarter ’05. If anything, it is an example of the fact that no market can keep going up forever.
I’d agree with the poster who said that this is an early spring bounce. according to Sunday’s Times, the same thing is happening in Westchester.
The fact is that real estate values–even in New York–pretty much track inflation historically. Given that, how can anyone think that prices could continue to rise at this rate?
and i also must disclose that i’m more of a glass half full person by nature, so i suppose you have to take my comments with a grain of salt, if you must.
i guess my point was that when you have a real estate market like new york’s, i think that other facts must come into play. otherwise there is no explaining for the fact that things still seem to be rather heated here, while my sister in md couldn’t pay people to come to an open house and dropped her price 3 times before making the sale last week.
of course this happens here as well, but i still would argue that new york is different in many ways than most of the rest of the country. and i think that a large majority of this is a recent change where more and more people feel comfortable enough to buy something and stay a while. that is significant in my mind.
Please, please don’t act like the fact that we live “on an island” has anything to do with it at this point – it’s a silly argument. That “island” hasn’t prevented thousands of new condo buidings in the past few years, has it? no. It’s a silly point to make.
The market system may be the most efficient system we know, but it’s not the most fair system. In fact fairness has nothing to do with it.