Outlook 2007: Longs and Shorts
Note: We’re moving this post up from yesterday to encourage more input.Welcome to the third annual installment of our market prognostications. Last year, we picked Prospect Heights and Carroll Gardens to outperform and Williamsburg to slump, which in retrospect look like pretty good calls. As for next year, our eyes will be on the areas…
Note: We’re moving this post up from yesterday to encourage more input.Welcome to the third annual installment of our market prognostications. Last year, we picked Prospect Heights and Carroll Gardens to outperform and Williamsburg to slump, which in retrospect look like pretty good calls. As for next year, our eyes will be on the areas bordering Prospect Park that have the location and housing stock on their sides but have yet to attract widespread interest from the gentrifying crowd. We’d also be front-running the newly Brooklyn-focused Landmarks Preservation Commission by looking in spots like the soon-to-be-designated Crown Heights North. On the downside, it’s hard to see how increasing supply of run-of-the-mill condos coming on line in Williamsburg won’t continue to put downward pressure on prices. We’re not as wary about the effect of Atlantic Yards on surrounding real estate as some and continue to think that Prospect Heights has a lot to offer. As has been mentioned before, quality brownstones should continue to find buyers while those in more marginal neighborhoods and lacking architectural detail will likely have a tough time. Looking back on last year’s post, we can be thankful that we got our wish of a gourmet market (sorta) in the form of Choice. Now if we could just get a friggin’ cheese shop we’d be really psyched.
Market Predictions for 2006 [Brownstoner]
The people who have self hatred going on are the crackheads, Bloods and Crips who are killing themselves and eachother. Anon 1:01, I agree with you sista’
Oh really, closely related and entwined. Is that your way of saying all whites have money and non whites don’t??????? Talk about ignorant. Sad very sad. I don’t know where my monthly check “for just being white” has been for the passed 32 years has been.
I never said it didn’t exist. This argument on this thread has not been about racism. You shouldn’t turn it into something that cut and dry. The working class people in Park Slope are all colors, white, black, hispanic, etc. but what they all have in common is that they can’t afford to live in this neighborhood. So my point was about classism not racism.
Who assumed you weren’t a homeowmer, you idiot. And stop pulling that “I’m Black” bullshit, once you start that everybody stops listening. Everything is about money.
Don’t you realize its not about skin color, its about money and property values. Of course she wants ‘whites’ to move in. she’s a homeowner. And it’s not really whites, its yuppies, black or white they’re all the same shit just in different shades. Its not about color it’s about money. It’s not racism its classism. Rich blacks are the same as rich whites.
Anonymous at 1:01…
Nobody’s asking for handouts. Or reparations. People are just asking for a better solution, for advocacy, for fairness.
You’ve got a unfortunate, myopic view of the situation. (And, perhaps, a bit of self-hatred going on. But that is your issue to work through.) Be proud of your parents for working and providing an education and a good work ethic for you and your siblings. They sound like people who would also agree that a lot of what gives makes New York City unique, beautiful, and educational are its ethnic enclaves… many of which keep the city running with their working-class jobs. They may never be able to afford college, nice homes… society thrives because of this. But those people, at the very least, should not be subjected to the whims of their landlords.
BB
I for one am glad that white affluent families are purchasing homes in areas traditionally considered “working class.” I purchased my home as white flight began in my neighborhood only to watch property values drop, services decline and crime increase. As a hard working “person of color” I was ready to join the white flight. I stayed put though and it will be extremely profitable for me when I do sell. My mother “immigrated” from the south and my father from Barbados and they didn’t take any shit from my siblings and me They worked their asses off to make sure that we got what we needed and $200 sneakers were not included on their list of needs. I was always told that African American, Latinos, Native Americans, etc… were wronged at the hand of whites in this country and I agree with their assessment wholeheartedly. However, we were also taught not to wait for any type of apology or handout as a reparation because it wasn’t going to happen. My husband and I like my parents worked hard purchased a home and rasied our children with the same values. They are not at risk for being displaced because they went to college, have good jobs and can afford to live where they want. When other people of color learn to stop whining and complaining and take full advantage of what this city has to offer educationally, they will not be at the whim of their landlords. I don’t feel sorry for them if they are displaced. I say good riddance! So welcome white people to Bed-Sty, Crown Heights, Greenpoint, Victorian Flatbush etc… and you have no reason to feel guilty for displacing anybody!
The people in the neighborhood are not the ones pushing the lower income families out — it’s the landlords who are pushing them out. In my neck of the woods (Hamilton Heights, NY), the landlords are pressuring the low rent tenants in my building to move out, offering them ten grand to move on. I’m paying a lot more than many people in my building, but I would rather my landlords find some kind of grant or some other way to get the money to maintain the building. The fact is, the only way for landlords to make money in these neighborhoods is to renovate, then sell. Sooner or later a landlord is going to find a way to kick everyone out.
I like my neighbors. They’re mostly hardworking hispanic families, like the neighbors I grew up with in Flushing in the 70s. I love the music students, and the tamale lady. (But I don’t love the crack addicts and drug deals going down in my lobby.) Another thing I like about my neighborhood is that there once was a starbucks, but it closed down. Nobody here went for it. They beat Starbucks! Who knows, maybe they’ll triumph over the landlords too, if they don’t find more humane ways to improve their buildings and neighborhoods. I hope so.
10:37,
It’s frightening. It’s sickening. There’s just not enough advocacy for those who are being pushed out.
The “this is the real-estate game” excuse/logic is tired. It’s deeper than that.