Douglas Elliman Q1 Report: Down and Downer
Not surprisingly, prices and volume in Brooklyn were both down in the first quarter of 2009 versus both the Q4 and Q1 2008, according to the latest market report from Douglas Elliman. The median sales price fell to $474,600 from $490,000 in the prior quarter and $527,000 a year earlier. Likewise, the number of transactions…
Not surprisingly, prices and volume in Brooklyn were both down in the first quarter of 2009 versus both the Q4 and Q1 2008, according to the latest market report from Douglas Elliman. The median sales price fell to $474,600 from $490,000 in the prior quarter and $527,000 a year earlier. Likewise, the number of transactions was 1,186, down from 1,846 in the fourth quarter and 2,761 in the first quarter of 2008. The median price declines were consistent across all property types: Condos (-8.6%), Co-ops (-11.4%), 1-3 Family (-10.6%), Luxury (-9.2%). East Brooklyn was by far the hardest hit, with median prices plummeting 25% year-over-year. Townhouses in Northwest Brooklyn fared pretty badly, too, with median prices falling to $1,087,500 from $1,287,500 in the fourth quarter and $1,200,000 a year earlier.
Market Reports [Douglas Elliman]
Light at end of tunnel for falling home prices in Queens, Brooklyn, report suggests
BY Leigh Remizowski
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Thursday, April 16th 2009, 4:00 AM
It may come as no surprise that home prices in Queens and Brooklyn are falling, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, a new report suggests.
The median home price in Queens fell 4.8% in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008 – from $413,000 to $393,000, according to a report by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate to be released today.
Home prices in Brooklyn took a bigger hit, dropping 9.9% in the same period, from $527,000 to $474,600. And the volume of sales declined by a dramatic 52% in Queens and 57% in Brooklyn.
But there was a silver lining in all the gloom and doom – a spike in contracts toward the end of the quarter, the report showed.
“If the price comes down to the point where the property is much more affordable, there will be a demand to purchase,” said the report’s author, Jonathan Miller.
Eric Benaim, president of Modern Spaces, a Long Island City real estate firm, said business was indeed slow through February, but sales have picked up dramatically since mid-March.
“I need more agents over here,” he said. “People are buying because they know there are deals out there now.”
Dottie Herman, chief executive of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said the lower-priced properties will begin to move first. That means new homeowners are more likely to dive in.
“First-time buyers are going to enter the market first,” she said, adding that indicators point to a market that will take a long time to rebound.
The outlook is bleaker in Manhattan, which until recently seemed relatively immune from tumbling home prices across the country.
“Queens and Brooklyn began to see weaker price trends nearly two years ago, whereas Manhattan just started,” Miller said.
The northwest regions of both Queens and Brooklyn are exceptions to the trend in declining home prices, the report shows.
In northwest Queens, the average home price climbed 2.1% – from $531,178 to $542,343. The average in northwest Brooklyn was $807,810 in the first quarter of 2009 – a jump of 4.9% from the 2008’s first-quarter figure of $770,123.
Despite higher prices, sales remained significantly lower – 47.2% fewer in northwest Queens and 69.3% fewer in northwest Brooklyn.
“This trend is primarily centered around all the new development that’s happening near the water,” Miller said, referring to both Long Island City and Williamsburg.
New developments, many of which have been in the works since before the recession began, are hitting the market now in both neighborhoods. That translates into a buyer’s market for the intrepid.
“If you have a great deal, that trumps consumer confidence,” Herman said.
Thanks, DIBS. In a million years, I never would have guessed that that was the meaning of the skittles stuff. I mean, there are no white skittles either, are there? (I have not eaten Skittles in probably 20 years, so I really don’t remember.)
But in any case, certainly there are no flesh tones. That would be pretty unappealing.
Slopefarm, thanks for the deep psychological insight into the minds of the What and DIBS. You come across as so smart and insightful, I bet you’re a professional. Some kind of shrink right? (I bet you even detect my sarcasim).
We are coming out of the recession. There’s currently a tug of war going on in the Treasury market. The government is buying (forcing yields down) and the rest of the world is selling. I don’t mean to imply that foreign governments are liquidating. All of the money that has exited from mutual funds and the stoc market is waiting on the sidelines and ready to go back in iff they get any sense that the market rally is for real, That’ll be a huge whoooshing sound out of risk free into risky assests. Its also why gold has been weak of late.
I’m shocked avg and median prices in northwest brooklyn (BH, CH. PS, etc) were up over both Q4 08 and Q1 08. Shocked!
Volume fell off the cliff tho. Not surprised, like someone else said, there’s very little new coming on the market in brooklyn heights at least. Very little.
daveinbedstuy : Govt officials have come out and said they want to bring rates down to 3% or close to it. I am positive NYC will do just fine thru all of this. Btw what many have not realized is we are coming out of this recession.
Kris…since he won’t give you a straight answer I’ll tell you..
Skittles are supposedly “racist” b/c there are no black ones or brown ones. However a few of us had dinner recently and I bought a bag of Skittles and to all of our surprise, there are brown ones.
As you can see above he won’t address my calling him out on so many people moving from Bed Stuy to manhattan. He just rants like a lunatic.
Actually, Snark, like I said above, if they come down 50% I’d happily sell Bed Stuy at half off to upgrade to BH for about a million dollars!!!
Brooklynnative,
DIBS defended what when Randolph made a gratuitous slur yesterday. DIBS has every right to be a little extra PO’d when what made it personal today. Sometimes you just have to defend your turf even when the fight is inane. But you are right — many have tried to find ways to engage what civilly, with occasional glimpses of success but no more. Wasder was tolerant for a while and cobble has a strange affection for him and has put up with a lot. But what really doesn’t seem to be able to manage the line between argument and invective very well, and doesn’t seem to get that that — and not his arguments themselves — is the main beef that most on this site have with him.