This Is Not the First Bear Market in Brooklyn Real Estate
A reader sent along the link to this Times article about another down market in Brooklyn real estate–only, this one took place 131 years ago. Endlessly entertaining. A few excerpts from the piece titled “Lower Rents in Brooklyn: Last Year’s Prices Reduced”: A residence in Central Brooklyn, which comprises the two eligible neighborhoods known as…
A reader sent along the link to this Times article about another down market in Brooklyn real estate–only, this one took place 131 years ago. Endlessly entertaining. A few excerpts from the piece titled “Lower Rents in Brooklyn: Last Year’s Prices Reduced”:
A residence in Central Brooklyn, which comprises the two eligible neighborhoods known as the “Heights” and the “Hill,” and through which runs the principal thoroughfare, Fulton-avenue, is, of course, more desirable than one in the other districts. There is a great demand in this part of Brooklyn for small houses, and as there are not more than enough to supply the demand, there will be slight reductions in there rents this year. In the lower part of Brooklyn, houses which rented last year for sums ranging from $200 to $700 will generally be let for the same figures this year. But on all other houses there will be very considerable reductions, and owners of houses which have been rented for more than $1,000 will have to make reductions amounting to 25 per cent., or even more, if they want tenants.
There’s some other great bits about pricing in Clinton Hill and Brooklyn Heights: $2,000 a year for a house at the corner of Remsen and Joralemon while a house at Dekalb and Adelphi went for $1,000 and those on Prospect Place and Park Place went for between $700 to $1,000. In the last paragraph, they finally get around to the sales market:
Many new houses have been erected in Brooklyn during the last year, but mostly in the newer neighborhoods. These are now in the market for sale, and, as has already been said, many persons are looking about for houses to buy, but as yet very few sales have been made. All the Brooklyn real estate agents do not believe, with the one already mentioned, that bottom prices have been reached. One of them with whom a Times reporter talked emphatically said that he believed affairs would get worse rather than better. Prices now asked for houses and lots, he said were lower than last year’s prices, and he could see no prospect of improvement.
Lower Rents in Brooklyn [NYT Archives]
What the heck are you talking about fsrq? Rent control does not force tenants to stay in high-priced apts.
> “the great Ostrich hat-feather bubble collapse.”
Then, as now, investors had their heads in the sand.
Well, maybe this article can at least solve one ongoing dispute: it describes the boundaries of the “Hill” as going from DeKalb to Atlantic, and from “Portland” to Franklin (not Classon!!!).
The “lower” Manhattan prices reflect the effects of DECONTROL. When the apartments are no longer controlled (and you have massive debt to pay on the buildings) – you lower the rent cause you cant afford to have vacancies (may not even be able to hold on with full occupancy depending on the debt load).
Ahh but have no fear our State Legislatures are working on this problem….they are going to expand rent control laws so that more luxury apartments remained controlled – which will of course keep those apartments off the market and keep rents artificially high
could be worse, rob. You could have bought a house for far more than what it is worth now. Maybe the landlord will go down a bit when the lease renewal comes up.
it’s pissing me off right now what i pay in park slope when things in lower and mid manhattan have gotten so much cheaper. 🙁 grrr. i love where i live so i dont plan to move until my roommate decides to kick me out or not renew the lease.. grrr im just getting pissy seeing all these people get sweet deals on rent lately.
*r*
NorthHeights is correct. As I posted here before:
“The neighborhood was given its name in the 1950’s by a real estate agent who sought to increase the market potential of the brownstone-lined streets, which were then included in a larger area known as South Brooklyn. ”Somebody ran across an old map of New York in which this area was called Cobleshill,” said Dennis Holt, a senior editor of The Brooklyn Heights Press and Cobble Hill News, who recently wrote a series of articles about life in Cobble Hill during the 1880’s. ”Everyone has forgotten who that person was.””
Then she came back from downstairs and said they were surfing Craigslist and found a two bedroom in midtown West for $2300 a month.
Correct, there was no “Cobble Hill” at that time, it was just the northern edge of South Brooklyn. (Maybe some shady real estate agents would have called streets like Pacific, Amity part of the Heights but from the beginning, Atlantic Avenue was the dividing line of the Heights from the rest of the old town of Brooklyn – hence it’s original name, Division Street.)