condos-for-sale-01-2008f.jpgThe Corcoran Group released its year-end market data today, and the brokerage’s stats show the ’07 Brooklyn market making healthy (if not huge) gains over 2006. The median sales price on all condos and co-ops was up 7 percent last year, to $590,000, while median townhouse values rose 2 percent in ’07, to $1.2 million. The really fun part of the report, however, is its breakdown of how various neighborhoods have fared, sales- and price-wise (see chart on jump). The big winner? Brooklyn Heights, where the median price shot up 19 percent, to $1.3 million. Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, on the other hand, showed a median price decrease of 9 percent, going from $950,000 in 2006 to $860,000 in 2007. And Park Slope’s median price slipped from $999,000 in ’06 to $928,000 in ’07. We have a few reservations about this report, including that it doesn’t specify the total number of sales it tracks, that it only compares year-over-year values, and that it basically only covers the priciest brownstone neighborhoods—though we have to give it up for the big C for devoting so much ink to Brooklyn sales data. The article in the Times this morning about the record-setting fourth-quarter Manhattan market notes that Brooklyn’s gains were more “stable” than Manhattan’s. Brooklyn showed its maturity this year because the appreciation was much more steady, said Corcoran Group president Pamela Liebman. Anyhow, do these numbers jibe with pricing trends you’ve noticed over the past year?
Apartment Prices in Manhattan Defy National Real Estate Slide [NY Times]
Photo by threecee.

corcoran-07-market-report-01-2008.jpg


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Investor Lou:

    The problem is you’re not using standard terminology. I think you’re also more familiar with “investments” that are secured with your personal assets or incomes, rather than investments that are secured with mortgages underwritten with the income from a particular property.

    You clearly know something of financial analysis, but you need to learn more about real estate valuation principles. Also, your particular example was highly unlikely. A bank may certainly give you a loan, but it won’t be based on the projection you gave – that was an extremely high risk proposition and the vast majority of deals with those kinds of assumptions will fail.

    Be careful out there.