REBNY Report: Brooklyn Real Estate Still Rockin'
A mid-year report from the Real Estate Board of New York shows that Brooklyn real estate prices remain very strong, despite a broad market slowdown around the country. On top of that, some Brooklyn nabes are doing better than Manhattan. The average sales price for one- and two-family Brooklyn houses for the first half of…
A mid-year report from the Real Estate Board of New York shows that Brooklyn real estate prices remain very strong, despite a broad market slowdown around the country. On top of that, some Brooklyn nabes are doing better than Manhattan. The average sales price for one- and two-family Brooklyn houses for the first half of ’06 was $586,000 – a 15.6 percent jump from the $507,000 seen in the same period last year – while prices for Brooklyn co-ops and condos also continued to increase. The average apartment sold for $491,000 in the first six months of this year – up 4 percent from $472,000 for the same period last year. “Brooklyn’s always had its unique characteristics and has been a first choice of many buyers, but now more and more people are moving to Brooklyn from Manhattan because prices are cheaper and it’s a great option,” said Michael Slattery, REBNY’s senior vice president.
Brooklyn’s Real Estate Bucks Market [NY Post]
Photo by davidfg
Anon at 5.28, you make no sense. You clearly have a warped view of the world and a chip on your shoulder.
Also, any “first wave” of gentrifiers (and it did not start as late as 2001) in an “unestablished area”, for lack of a better term, are going to pay less than when the area takes off. I really don’t see your point other than that you have issues with people complaining if they have more money than you. Sure, it’s annoying to hear them complain (though I’m not sure where you get this daily onslaught of bitching young rich people who aren’t “rich enough”), but your logic seems flawed. It sounds like you have a bee in your bonnet about people with money and gentrification generally and are tryingto make some strange argument about how upper middle class people want a crash in the market so they can take advantage of poor people.
Bizzare.
They ‘did’ have the wool pulled over their eyes because the first wave of gentrifiers post 2001 bought low. This is so typical of gentrification. Poor people sell low only to realize that if they had held on to their property for another 3-5 years they could have sold it for upwards of ten times the amount that they parted with it for.
If I sound angry its because a large majority of the ‘cheapskates’ and piranhas that are now vociferously complaining about prices and trying to discount every property that is profiled are only doing so because they’ve suddenly found themselves outpriced and out done.
They’re probably angry because they no longer can come in and swoop up quality housing for a steal and flip it 3 years later for exponentially more.
They seem to think that just because they’re young and rich, but not rich enough apparently to buy anything in brooklyn, all they need to do is complain and the world should automatically bend, lean and cave-in to their needs, wants and desires.
Property values throughout the borough should drop overnight and return to where it was 3 years ago so that they can join their buddies and drive up the prices the next year.
Love everyone getting all mushy and sentimental for pre-getrification Brooklyn. When I first moved to Brooklyn in the early 80s (which were peachy times compared to what I hear about the late 70s) you looked over your shoulder every time you went out at night. I lived here for all of a week before my car was stolen. Two weeks before my roommate got mugged. Not everything about gentrification is postive, but thee have been way more prs than cons. I wonder if anyone getting all misty about the old days was actually around during the old days. There has been a tremendous improvement in the quality of Brooklyn and that has shown up in real estate prices. That said, buying a brownstone can but a white knuckle experience. If you buy a house where you can afford the payments and you plana to live there for 10+ years, you will be happy with the result. If you don’t plan to live there that long, you shouldn’t buy. The transaction costs (bor both buying and selling) are so high, that it just doen’t make sense otherwise. A final word to anyone waiting to buy at the bottom which is that it’s very difficult to know when you’re at the bottom. If you were thinking about buying a house in Sept. 12th 2001, I think everyone would have said you were crazy and that prices had no where to go but down. Not exactly what happened.
Anon 4.28 and 4.43 (assume you are the same person). You misunderstand me. I don’t feel sorry for anyone who has sold their homes to yuppies or other well off people. No one tricked them or forced them to do so. I am one of those well off people by the standards tossed around on this site.
My point was that if there is a crash as anon 3.27pm is hoping for, it will not have the effect of returning brownstone brooklyn’s prime areas into the working class enclaves they were in the mid 20th century. The gentrifiers and others will simply see a drop in market prices as a time to buy low in the prime areas, and ultimately, in the long term, the market will rise again.
I also disagree that the ‘yuppies’ you describe are the people taking out exotic loans for townhouses they live in. I’m not talking about speculative investment in non-owner occupied condos. The will not be leaving in droves if there is crash in prices.
Furthermore, no wool was pulled over any poor sellers’ eyes (in fact, if they sold in the last 5-10 years, they are likely no longer “poor”). Long time residents who have sold their homes recently made a good financial decision if they were in fact poor to begin with, and decided to sell their houses because of steep increases in value. Sound financial decisions such as that is how people change their lot in life, and that of future generations of their family. I count them fortunate and smart to have had the foresight to have bought, and not rented, in what were considered bad areas in the 1970s and 1980s. Their investments in their communities and the risks they took paid off financially. So well done to the “poor” people who had the wool pulled over their eyes. Give me a break. No one forced them to sell. They are not victims. Good grief.
If you folks are so bearish on real estate why aren’t capitalizing on the downward market trends, i.e., buying put options or writing calls in Realogy (H: NYSE)or simply shorting the common. Realogy owns Corcoran, Allan Schneider (now Corcoran), Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby’s International Realty. The home builders are another play too. Ahhhhh….just think about it – if you invest prudently over the next few years a Brooklyn Heights mansion on Willow surely awaits you in 2008…. 😉
and to address your point of the wealthy boring people buying up properties after the crash, people are wising up. They might seem old, illiterate and backwards but they’re no longer stupid. Blogs aren’t the only grapevine. The streets have a media outlet of their own. Only a fool living under a rock for the last three years would be unaware of the present and future value of his/her home. There are no more deals to be had…even when the market crashes.
It’s going to take one heck of a Houdini to pull the wool over poor people’s eyes the next time around.
I’m amazed at the sense of ‘entitlement’ that is so arrogantly displayed here. No one would ever think about complaining that they’re entitled to a luxury apartment on the upper east side…so why is there this prevailing notion that brooklyn homeowners should trade with their property for little or nothing.
The same thing that happened is Boston will happen here. People will just pull their properties off the market if they can’t get their asking price.
The materialistic yuppies will suffer disproportionately more than the rest of us. For they are the ones who took out exotic loans. So if you want to be cannibalistic and eat your own kind, go right ahead.
I agree with you lp that a lot of this talk about impending doom is being fueled and inspired by greedy and gluttonous sharks who have run out of poor people to bilk. They’re salivating and drooling like rabid dogs because they have suddenly become the victim of their own design. Everything in real estate is cyclical. Bigger sharks always come along. The gentrified will eventually find themselves displaced by a wealthier bunch. Call it karma.
Believe it or not, hundreds of thousands of people led quiet, contented lives in brooklyn before the onslaught of gentrification…and those same people will continue to lead a rich life ‘after’ the crash. They came to brooklyn for reasons other than to get rich quick or to join the lot of pretentious home-owners. They weathered the worst of crime and poverty. So they really have no incentive to panic because someone claims the sky is falling. They will continue to live life just as they did ten years ago.
Hate to break it to you Anon at 3.27pm, but whether or not there is a ‘crash’ as you say (I don’t think there will be a ‘crash’ just a flattening of crazy appreciation and some dropping in prices too to the levels of a few years back but let’s assume there will be a ‘crash’), the ‘yuppies’ and ‘richer population of gentrifiers’ you seem to hate so much won’t be going anywhere. In fact, if there is really a ‘crash’ in prices, those wealthy boring people are going to buy even more in your beloved neighborhoods so that they can realize on those properties when the market turns back around.
The artcile is almost as funny as the new trend amongst real esatte brokers to counter the cooling market. Instead, of listing the house in a range that intelligent people will buy at, they list the house at an amount higher than they could have received before the obvious market decline in hopes someone completely ignorant to the situation will buy. These practices are what will actually cause a crash, because in time the prices will look like they are falling 30-40% instead of what really was a 10-20% market correction, some people will panic and sell for even less, and possible start a trend to crash the market. The greed of brokers is really amazing as they bite off their nose to spite their face.