Taking the Pulse of Townhouse Sales in the Slope
Last week we received a document entitled Charles Ruoff’s Townhouse Report, the first in a biannual series Ruoff, a Brown Harris Stevens broker who specializes in townhouse sales in Park Slope and Prospect Heights, intends to produce. Ruoff’s recent big-ticket listings include 598 2nd Street ($3,450,000) and 909 Union Street ($2,495,000). The broker’s assessment of…
Last week we received a document entitled Charles Ruoff’s Townhouse Report, the first in a biannual series Ruoff, a Brown Harris Stevens broker who specializes in townhouse sales in Park Slope and Prospect Heights, intends to produce. Ruoff’s recent big-ticket listings include 598 2nd Street ($3,450,000) and 909 Union Street ($2,495,000). The broker’s assessment of the current townhouse market in the Slope and Prospect Heights is as follows:
We are once again faced with limited supply of homes in all price points. The third quarter of 2007 produced some noteworthy sales and in fact record-breaking prices in both the North and South Slope as well as in the adjoining neighborhood of Prospect Heights. Inventory as well as demand seems to be especially lacking in the high $1 million dollar to low $2 million dollar range. The limited supply of multi-family homes on the market can best be attributed to the dramatic rise in rents for landlords now receiving very healthy cash-flow.
Sound about right to you?
Photo by Da Nator.
I own a brownstone and we depend on rental income for the garden apartment. Our rental income has gone up A LOT in the last three years.
That said, I am worried about all these new building going up on 4th Avenue. I don’t think the condos will all sell — and because they are condos, they can be rented. The number of rentals will increase, and rental prices will drop. Good for renters, bad for landlords.
Or is there another scenario?
This is totally ridiculous. Rents are going up in Manhattan and that is putting pressure on people to buy and that pushes prices up across the boards in terms of rentals in the more desireable areas in the NYC area. Also more people are renting because they don’t want to buy now. This is basic real estate economics. It’s called supply and demand. Most landlords aren’t trading on a short term position type thing. They have a crazy little thing called capital gains to deal with. They don’t care if rents go down. They don’t want to pay capital gains taxes.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a buyer’s market. At all.”
You’re right. That would imply there are buyers.
I wouldn’t say it’s a buyer’s market. At all.
Simply put, people who own 2 million dollar brownstones don’t really need to sell anytime soon. They understand that they can sit on their equity and collect some rent for a couple of years. Why would they think to sell in a so-called “buyer’s market”? The folks being squeezed right now are the flippers in marginal neighborhoods who don’t have as much equity as they thought and middle class families looking for a larger place in city limits. Add to this mix, the Manhattan price factor which defies the entire national trend and you have an idea of the current market. Also note that the population of NYC is getting larger by the year, people always need food and shelter.
Why shouldn’t this guy seek to get more business? Obviously, he has a track record which is more than I can say for the average broker who I have dealt with in the past.
To the post at 8:16, you are reading one paragraph of a four page report which Brownstoner has indicated above, did you ever think that this could be taken out of context? Hey, I might not agree entirely with Ruoff, however, if rents dropped by 15 – 20 % I am sure that a number of these brownstones would come on the market and people would take their capital gains hit and invest in tax free bonds or something as the maintenance of these buildings is extremely high. Most of the people who own the prime housing stock in The Slope are not wealthy, they are people who purchased twenty and thirty years ago. If rental prices can down significantly there is no doubt more of these places would hit the market… just common sense
This report is similar to what I’ve seen also.
I love all the people who said that no was was buying this past summer and fall during the subprime meltdown and now that real, live information proves you wrong, you just push it back and say the worst is yet to come.
We’ve been hearing this for years. By this point, my home has gone up in value 200% (so have many other folks) so a 15% drop in home prices doesn’t really matter. Not to me, anyway.
To the comments that Park Slope is over…
So was the les, so was the east village, so was hells kitchen, so was dumbo. Every NYC neighborhood is “over” at some point. It’s usually the best time to buy, because any smart person knows that every neighorhood close to Manhattan is going to be worth something and will come and go into fashion.
Park Slope has and will continue to be a nice neighborhood whether you personally think it’s over or not.
And to the dimwit who said rent prices are going down…how about looking at more than the last few months.
Over the course of time, rents in NYC have done nothing but skyrocket. 7 years ago I paid 1400 for a prime park slope 2 bedroom.
Now you can get much for a nice studio in the slope. Or an OK 1 bedroom.
Having rental tenants is a huge plus for sure.
It’s all speculation anyway – people sell homes for different reasons – they move, they get tired of being landlords, they die, they downsize, they upsize, they want to take out their rise in equity and do something else with the money – to say it is because of the rents they collect alone is silly.