Will Everyone Go Running Back to Manhattan?
Crain’s recycles the question (asked by The Times a week earlier) that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days: Do falling Manhattan rents spell the end of Brooklyn? We don’t think so. Clearly some people who work in Midtown and were living in Brooklyn based on price alone (“If it’s as expensive in Brooklyn…
Crain’s recycles the question (asked by The Times a week earlier) that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days: Do falling Manhattan rents spell the end of Brooklyn? We don’t think so. Clearly some people who work in Midtown and were living in Brooklyn based on price alone (“If it’s as expensive in Brooklyn as Manhattan, I’d rather just be in the real thing, says one publicist) will return to Manhattan but, we’d bet, most of the creative professionals who’ve put down roots in the County of Kings are here to stay. Real housewife Alex McCord summed up how we—and, if this poll is to be believed, many others—feel when she told the paper, Even if we had Warren Buffett money, we would never leave.
Can Brooklyn Keep Its Mojo? [Crain’s]
Brooklynites Jumping Ship to Manhattan? [Brownstoner]
Photo by cornell100
i guess i misunderstood ur post.so i apologize once again.
LionBalls – I agree to a certain extent.
I don’t think anyone here really believes since manhattan rents are falling – brooklyn rents will NEVER decrease. They have to, as the markets are linked.
Right now the brooklyn decrease seems to be lagged, but its coming. Right now the alternatives in Manhattan aren’t really attractive for myself and people I know (20 somethings not making 6 figures) – manhattan isn’t magically affordable again.
If your extreme scenarios happen, then of course many people will leave brooklyn and never look back.
And I disagree about half the people in Williamsburg leaving for the LES if the LES gets insanely cheap (i used to agree with this) – anything the LES had in its hipster heyday is gone or has moved to williamsburg. the LES is a puke soaked Murray Hill playground on the weekends. Anything there is in williamsburg now, for less money and with significantly less puke.
“The conversations on here never take into account the $40,000/year professionals like social workers and teachers. Brooklyn is the park slop well-to-do and all of the other folks are second class citizens. The policemen, firemen, shop workers, secretaries, middle-managers, etc etc etc just magically appear each day and then disappear at night and on the weekends.”
Oh cry me a river.
Buckfast… i was saying that folks on this site think of Brooklyn as ONLY the brownstone belt and more specifically the “creative professional” (whatever that means) making 6-figure incomes.
The conversations on here never take into account the $40,000/year professionals like social workers and teachers. Brooklyn is the park slop well-to-do and all of the other folks are second class citizens. The policemen, firemen, shop workers, secretaries, middle-managers, etc etc etc just magically appear each day and then disappear at night and on the weekends.
LionBalls???
Yes, LionBalls, but the point is moving to Manhattan is like moving to Midtown. Unattractive, ugly, overrun with tourists, bad food, expensive food. So you pay a price even if your rent is cheaper.
Of course if you could buy a similar brownstone near the park for the same price as PS people would move, I would move. But you can’t.
OK, so Brooklyn keeps Etsy, gains SpikeDBB but loses Kristina Wylde, mid-town publicist. Seems like pretty good trades actually! Also, does anyone with half a clue really think Brooklyn’s a “pioneer market” anymore on the whole? I could see if you’re arguing secondary market. And one last little nit–I think the woman from real housewives is in Cobble Hill (as it even says in the article), which aint Park Slope believe it or not. Just helps if you’re doing this kind of article to get your neighborhoods right.
I love this article. Brooklyn is the new downtown. Yes. What was my old joke? The Upper East Side is the new Upper East Side.
You know what’s coming next: Starbuck’s and Disney and Apple and douches to Brooklyn. Unless the subway patterns keep them away. If it’s going to go like that, then can we at least get some decent grocery stores?
If your a diehard brooklynite feel free to ignore this post.
Everyone else, just suck it up and face the facts… we all have a price tolerance, If manhattan prices continue to drop and brooklyn prices dont drop accordingly… there will be an increasing appeal to owning and/or renting in the “city”.
While there are many who have no need to go to the city at all, a HUGE portion of brooklyn residents must and do commute on a regular basis to manhattan. This is the core reason manhattan is more “valuable” than the regions that border it. Denying this is really sticking your head in the sand.
Clearly people can become irreversibly attached to their residences, all the more so if they were local to begin with… but the majority of people really are operating on a “is it worth the effort” basis. Where they are primarily looking for a “deal” and once they see a reasonable offer, they’re really debating if the troubles of moving and so forth are worth the reward of likely being closer to their work, and many friends, and the many amenities and events and so forth manhattan has (rental cars anyone!!! 🙂 ).
A complete idiot could understand the process, rent goes down , more people will be attracted… the MORE rent goes down the more attractive it becomes, even to people who had previously not even considered it… consider this effect MAGNIFIED in border neighborhoods (such as park slope, williamsburg, LIC, hoboken, etc…).
If your comparing your 900$ one bedroom in brooklyn, manhattan is clearly far away from affordable… but if prices fell that far… a whole ton of 900$ one bedroom renters in BK would be thinking about leaving.
If the LES prices crumble ill bet you dollars to donuts half of williamsburgs “trendy” residents would jump ship in a heart-beat.
If i could buy a similar brownstone in chelsea or the UWS near the park for the same price as one in PS, you can bet most people wouldn’t blink twice before choosing the manhattan one.
–LionBalls
I meant to say “you have no idea.”