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We got our hands on Corcoran’s Q2 sales data, and it shows that the state of the Brooklyn market isn’t quite as precarious as the Times made it out to be. The median price per square foot sales price of condos and co-ops is up 10 percent over this time last year, to $560,000, and there was a 4 percent reduction in condo/co-op inventory. In terms of townhouses, while the median price on one-families was down 3 percent from Q2 ’07 levels, to $965,000, the median price on 2-4 families was up 6 percent, to $1,240,000. In fact, all the brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods had pretty substantial price increases in the larger townhouse category, and inventory was extremely tight. The most startling figure in the report is the 15 percent decrease in median prices for Williamsburg condos, but even that doesn’t seem so horrible when you factor in that Corcoran had 47 percent more condo listings between April and June ’08 compared to the same three months in ’07. Another mediating factor to consider in viewing the drop in median price of Williamsburg condos: Many developers began skewing their mix of inventory towards studios and one-bedrooms since those were the units that were selling best; if there were more small apartments in the 2008 data, one would expect to see average and median prices declining. Conclusion: We don’t think the party’s over and done with in Brooklyn, either.
Manhattan ‘Still a Party’; Hangover for Williamsburg? [Brownstoner]


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  1. We’re in the market for a townhouse and, given how overpriced everything seems, have been putting in low offers – about 15% below ask, sometimes more. Contrary to the way things used to be a few years ago, brokers/sellers are NOT turning up their noses, but trying to counteroffer, and definitely willing to meet us at a significantly lower price. This, to me, is a sign that the market is softening. The houses we’re looking at are not the triple-prime variety (3mil mansions on the park), but they are pretty high end – asks approaching 2mil in good areas of PS, CG, etc.

  2. Tokyo isn’t an island, nor was it the capital of the world, much less capital of really anything in the 1990’s. It was and is a great city.

    NYC is the capital of world in finance, the visual and performing arts, advertising, fashion, architecture and it’s becoming a major hub for television and motion pictures.

    It also attracts more tourists in one year than Tokyo does in 10.

    So while there are some similarities, there are some pretty huge differences as well.

    You don’t hear people all over Europe saying they wish they could move to Tokyo because they saw a Japanese animated cartoon drink one too many cosmos and buy one too many pairs of Manolo Blahniks.

  3. Polemicist -frankly I’m surprised you seem to think I have something against you since you are the one who attacked me on some thread a few weeks ago completely out of the blue and without any provocation. We weren’t even posting back and forth and yet you decided to insult me. I was rather surprised. As for my post today- I certainly didn’t attack you or say anything other than that by not putting your statements in context it misrepresented the issue of Black homeowners in Harlem and Bed-Stuy. However I did not say anything about your intentions, nor did I assess them in anyway. I was simply dealing with your statements.
    I did read the Wiki explanation and quite a few others before I posted. If expanding an explanation, or not agreeing with yours automatically means I am personally opposing you in some online crusade, I would have to say its your issue, not mine. Why you seem to have so much trouble understanding any of my points (your premise, not mine) I can’t say- most people think I’m pretty clear.

  4. Tokyo in the ’90s would be a fine comparison. Great city, loose lending, bubble, insane prices, collapse.

    Way more than 50%, incidentally, and the world didn’t end. Any more than it ended when the dot.com bubble collapsed.

    But over-leveraged people who thought they were rich discovered they weren’t, and the economy suffered low growth for a decade or two (partly due to mismanagement, but who is immune from that?).

    In the end, lower prices are much better for the city, justice, and the economy. But getting there will be painful to anyone who has bought, or extracted equity, recently.

  5. No Heather, you’re actually you’re one of the few intelligent posters here.

    “Deflation rates in the 1930s were catastrophic for debtors. Because their assets became worth less than their debt, right?”

    Not exactly, it’s because they had to pay back the loans with dollars that were much more valuable than the dollars they had borrowed. A buck could buy you more in 1935 than it could in 1929.

    “Regarding the general state of the New York real estate market… is looking at something like Tokyo in the 90’s a valid comparison?”

    A lot of respected economists are saying this and remember, everyone said the same things about Tokyo as they do about NY – “infinite demand” “limited supply” etc. In fact, both of those factors are much stronger in Tokyo than NY. Still didn’t stop a huge >50% decades long slump.

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