Risky Business in Some Brooklyn Nabes?
This week New York magazine looks into its real estate crystal ball and sees all sorts of doom ‘n’ gloom on the horizon for Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and, to a lesser extent, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Of all the neighborhoods profiled in the mag’s Neighborhood Watch feature, in fact, Bed-Stuy and Bushwick are pegged the riskiest. (They…
This week New York magazine looks into its real estate crystal ball and sees all sorts of doom ‘n’ gloom on the horizon for Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and, to a lesser extent, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Of all the neighborhoods profiled in the mag’s Neighborhood Watch feature, in fact, Bed-Stuy and Bushwick are pegged the riskiest. (They receive a collective risk rating of 9 out of a possible 10.) According to the article, since the two areas are subprime hotbeds, there’s a good chance inventory is going to be flooding their markets–an assessment that jibes with the downturn in sales Bed-Stuy recently posted. In Williamsburg and Greenpoint, meanwhile, the supply of new construction may be outstripping demand. One local broker says Burg prices have sunk by about 10 percent lately. The article also makes the case that properties in Greenpoint, and areas of Williamsburg not within a stone’s throw of the Bedford L, are going to be less of a hot ticket as “creative types” find exotic mortgages harder to come by. These factors combine for a risk score of 7. (The rating for “established brownstone Brooklyn” is, unsurprisingly, a much rosier 2.5, based on the fact that areas like Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope attract affluent, stable buyers.) While Bed-Stuy and Bushwick are undoubtedly feeling more subprime fallout than other neighborhoods, it seems a little premature to predict that demand and prices in Williamsburg are about to take a serious nosedive. You agree with the pessimistic prognostications?
Neighborhood Watch [New York]
Big Slowdown Seen in Brooklyn’s Poorest Zones [Brownstoner]
Photo of Bed-Stuy houses by GKJarvis.
Amen 11:32 AM!
THE HIPSTER DEBATE:
This is the same store as the hippes in the 60’s and 70’s. It was those people that first came and pioneered Park Slope and other neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
They made the neighborhoods that we all know and love LIVABLE for the rest of us today. Certainly wasn’t the bankers, lawyers, etc.
“Hipsters” are doing the same thing now, first with Williamsburg, then Bushwick, etc etc etc.
Without this group of pioneering (granted in many cases, forced pioneering because of money) many of you would never be living in the neighborhoods you now live in.
Give a little credit where credit is due.
And I also hate the word hipster. It’s asinine.
Throwing around the word “hipster” just has to stop. It covers every 20 something that doesn’t work in finance or isn’t a doctor without differentiating what people do for a living. So, please enough.
Regarding who is purchasing condos in Williamsburg, my experience as a condo owner in one of the bigger projects is that it is mostly 30 something couples or older. Of the 20 somethings, they tend to be more serious biz types who have high incomes for their age not “hipsters”. Also, there are many many families buying in Williamsburg, and besides the many in my own complex, I meet tons more at the playgrounds who have bought a condo.
My prediction is that Williamsburg will be able to sell every new unit with no problem over the next 3 years for several reasons:
1) very little housing stock to purchase in the other gentrified neighborhoods until AY gets finished.
2) better location/faster commute especially for people who work in midtown
3) many people prefer new developments with great amenities over prewar that would need a lot of work (relevant if you don’t have tons of money)
4) some people feel that the vibe / neighborhood restaurants, shops, etc.. just suits them better. my upstairs neighbor works as a graphic designer but is also represented by a local gallery for his paintings. my other neighbor is an attorney, but is also in a band that plays in the area. etc…
5) there are no ghettos/projects except for the really far south end of Williamsburg. the poorer, hispanic area is getting gentrified, and in general, Williamsburg is way safer and cleaner than some of the marginal areas in other parts of Brooklyn. alot of people are not interested in being pioneers. i did it about 7-8 years ago in Prospect Heights and the constant hassle was certainly not worth it and nothing I’d like to repeat.
6) the big news in this city for years is that families are staying in NYC, and they need somewhere to live, and these people want to OWN, not rent. alot of people just assume that they’ll get married, have a kid and buy a house. emotionally, alot of people want to own rather than rent.
As 9:25 and HomeSweetStuy have so eloquently said – Bulldinky! New York Magazine needs to stick to stories about 30 somethings who can’t find dates on the Upper East Side, and hedge funders who can’t manage to live comfortably on a million dollars per annum. I find their research to be limited in scope outside of their usual territory of Manhattan below 96th Street. When they do go to Bklyn, especially black and Latino Bklyn, they act like they’ve been parachuted into the Lost World, and they get all gosh,golly wide eyed and/or stupid.
The previous article they did on Jefferson Ave at least had some important facts that have an import to today’s situation – many of the homeowners in BS have been there for generations, and are mortgage free. Not only mortgage free, but, as HSS said, mini-mogels. My old neighbors on Jefferson Ave not this block) consisted of at least 6 or 8 homeowners who owned at least 3 to 6 other houses besides the one they lived in. While the rest of the world was staying clear of BS, they were buying multiple homes for family and income. This is an old tradition in BS, and many of those people who are consistantly overlooked as all being poor, uneducated and stupid, are in fact doing quite well, thank you very much.
That’s not to say that parts of BS and Bushwick aren’t feeling the crunch. But as many people have said, BS is enormous, and can’t be analysed as a monolithic whole. I have no problem predicting that most of BS, expecially along the Fulton St. corridor, Stuy Hts, and near Clinton Hill, will continue to show strong growth. There will not be many foreclosures there. If there is any downturn in sales, it’s more because too many houses are “aggressively priced”, translate – too expensive.
We can only hope that New York Magazine is right about G’point, as we like it the way it is. Keeps all those obnoxious hipster editors in their hovels in the East Village.
The recent uptick in crime in both Bed Stuy and Clinton Hill are ruffling more than a few feathers, from what I’ve heard from friends living there…
We know BedStuyers….we hear it from you every time someone mentioned your neighbrohood.
It’s perfect, it’s Sesame Street, there’s no crime and everyone owns their own homes. We get it.
Oh and btw, those said hipsters profiled in the mag a few weeks ago were NOT buying homes.
They were renting. And they won’t be for long if crime goes up or rents are cheaper in other hoods like williamsburg or bushwick.
Yes, I agree with them. And I think Clinton Hill is in the Bed-Stuy category and not the BRooklyn Heights category
10:27 fortunately you don’t have to worry because you live in Stuyvesant Heights. It’s those poor folks in Bed Stuy that need to be concerned…