Brownstones, Co-ops Outperformed Condos in Q4
The median sales price in Brooklyn has been in decline for five consecutive quarters, according to Douglas Elliman’s Fourth Quarter Market Overview. The median figure dipped below $500,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008 for the first time since the first quarter of 2006. Average prices were down 5.2 percent from a year earlier and…
The median sales price in Brooklyn has been in decline for five consecutive quarters, according to Douglas Elliman’s Fourth Quarter Market Overview. The median figure dipped below $500,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008 for the first time since the first quarter of 2006. Average prices were down 5.2 percent from a year earlier and 2.8 percent from the prior three months. Perhaps more noteworthy, the number of transactions plummeted from 3,222 in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 1,846 last quarter; the rate of decline has been increasing for the past year. The only good news: The median sales price of brownstones in Northwest Brooklyn rose 12 percent; co-op prices were also up slightly. Update: This flu must really be going to our heads—as one commenter points out, these reports have been out for several weeks. The Manhattan 10-Year report is the new one. Oh well.
Now is a great time to buy. People are moving into Brooklyn in waves as it becomes increasingly family friendly and new great shops and restaurants are opening up all over the place. Things are different in Brooklyn given it is NYC where foreign buyers will continue to pick up real estate and there is an enormous amount of wealth. Prices will just continue to rise. Buy now or be priced out forever!
THL;
“Brownstone” is a brown-colored limestone. It is not sandstone. Sandstone makes for a very poor building material, especially in places like NYC with a harsh winter.
Most of the brownstone in NYC was quarried from Northern NJ, near its border with NYS.
Yeesh! I looked again and you’re right Rookie. I must be getting old cause it looks like I need glasses.
Sorry for the rudimentary answer. I honestly thought you were actually asking.
fsrq: Comparing price trends in condos and coops certainly is meaningful. Buyers substitute condos for coops to a pretty significant extent (very few are the buyers who are in the market exclusively for one or the other), so price behavior in one is very relevant to the other.
Don’t misinterpret what I just said to mean that there should not be a difference in price between the two. I am just saying that they are strongly correlated.
What an unusual thing to become sensitive about.
betterside–good question. I am going to try for a similar thing as macD in that I like my tenants and want them to stay. Certainly if they like staying and they are happy with rent at current level then we will just renew as is—they definitely have more power in the relationship than they would have a few years back. Will be interesting to see what happens as you say.
@Townhouse lady. I’m defintely familiar with the definitions, I’m just curious as to what meets the definition for these market reports.
You’d really consider that first one a brownstone? It’s made of brick, not sandstone. I’m pretty sure it was built as a multi-family row (tenement) house.
I certainly don’t think these numbers look terrible, given what’s going on.
It’s also interesting to note how much inventory is down, even since last quarter. I take that as a good sign. People who don’t need to sell, aren’t.
The underlying statistics are interesting but comparing between groups ie condo vs. coop vs townhome is MEANINGLESS – how can you compare condos – which 50% are developer sales vs coops where virtually ZERO are developer sales; how can you compare median price changes in condos where the Median sale price is HALF the price of the coops (584k for Coops vs 280K for condos).
There are so many problems doing these comparisons that it is embarrassing that Brownstoner even tries. Suffice to say – the number of sales are down for every class and if you ask ANYONE trying to sell ANYTHING – prices are down from 18mo ago.
MacD’s comment got me thinking. What will happen to rents as leases come up for renewal? Neither landlords nor tenants seem eager to rock to boat in these uncertain times, but there appears to be downward pressure on all housing prices (rented or owned), and broker fees are beginning to evaporate (making a tenant’s threat to walk away more credible). Is his zero-increase (but also zero-DECREASE) plan–“I am currently getting market rates and seriously considering offering one-year leases with no rent increase when the leases are up late in spring/early summer.”–unreasonably optimistic under the circumstances?