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.
guest at January 21, 2008 11:06 AM
By that, do you mean the market is turning soft? I heartily agree, and just wait for a year or so from now. It should be even more affordable, at least relative to today’s insane prices!
I totally agree with the anti-NYC real estate hype comments on this post!
I may be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the last comments like this that we see before the market takes a real turn DOWNWARD. Hello! The market is changing, rents are being pulled down, but even so, the rent to own ratio is way out of proportion beyond what it’s ever been in US history, and there are price cuts across the board, from the low to the high.
Even Gold Coast Manhattan has seen reductions of 30% in some cases.
If you read and listen to NYC real estate news beyond the self interested real estate brokers and firms, you will see that this ever irrational boom that the super wealthy thought would never end, is coming to a very precarious end! Prices will come down, through the floor, if not through the entire foundation, and the market will once again stabilize, but not for quite a while, so if anyone is planning to buy in or around Park Slope, my suggestion is to wait for at least a year or two, if you can.
Just be prepared for higher interest rates, and tighter lending standards, but it will hopefully lead to a more rational and healthy climate of home purchasing, and let’s hope, the end of the irrational expectation that this recent housing run up was somehow good for New York and the country in general. The last thing our economy needs is another investment bubble. Why didn’t we learn from the bust after the tech boom? This bust will make that one (and recent recessions since the Great Depression) look like a walk in the park!
Park Slope is softer than my dimply thighs.
Common sense dictates that ANY report about the market put out by a broker be taken with a million grains of salt. Brokers are the ones with the most vested interest in the matter– it’s their livelihood. So why would you read about the state of the market according to them, especially when the data is today readily available for public viewing? This availability of data to everyone makes these reports irrelevant.
Brownstoner is an extension of the REBNY
rents havent gone up over the last year.
Let’s assume this is right. Jesus, what good does it do to spread this information? Not everybody is sitting on top on a million bucks in home equity. The last thing we need is Brownstoner pumping up the market to make the rich richer.
It’s like Brownstoner was walking by a homeless family panhandling in the subway, and instead of giving them a quarter, reaches into his wallet and gives $20 to an investment banker running to catch a train.
Throw us a freaking bone here, jeez.
I think this is Right but i would rather buy in Cobble Hill Or Carroll Gardens.
I think wise brokers do exist and sorry even here,,but I do disagree with the Ruoff report. Rents are not rising and I am not sure how this finding is supported here. I am in fact some homeowners unable tor ent their properties fast enough and for what their last tenancy brought them on occasion.