[Charts and graphs via Prudential Douglas Elliman. Click to expand!]
Brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman and its market maestro Jonathan Miller have released the second quarter reports for Brooklyn and Queens, and if you're familiar with the Manhattan reports of earlier this month, then you've heard this song and dance before: declining sales and prices compared to last year, but slightly more activity than last quarter. However! These being outer boroughs, each has its own quirks. To the highlights! (The full reports can be downloaded here.)
Brooklyn: Both the average and median sales prices from April-June were down about 16% from last year, while the average price dipped below $500,000 for the first time since 2005. There was a 30% decline in the number of sales?nothing to stand up and cheer about, but not as stunning as Manhattan's 50%+ fall in the quarter. The "listing discount" was 5.1% from asking price to sales price, up from 3.3% last year and a sign, in Jonathan Miller's words, that sellers are still "chasing the market." New condos made up 49.5% of all sales in the borough in the second quarter, so let's take a closer look at that market.
The number of condo sales fell by 46%, but rose 13.4% from the prior quarter. Overall, average sales price was nearly $519,000, down 13.7% from last year and 2.5% from last quarter. While re-sale condos did alright?average price-per-square-foot declined only slightly from last year and actually increased over last quarter?it wasn't pretty for new development. At a $471/sf average, that's 27.4% off last year's mark at this time, and down 17% from last quarter. Co-ops attracted serious attention. In fact, the number of Brooklyn co-op sales shot up 35% from last quarter, and the median sales price increased 4% over that time.
And now, Williamsburg. Sweet baby Williamsburg. Lumped into Elliman's "North Brooklyn" category, there were 94 sales in the region last quarter?down 23% from last year but up nearly 12% from last quarter. The trend in median sales prices, as seen in the graph above, cannot be denied. Has the neighborhood's boom officially gone bust? The median sales price of North Brooklyn condos specifically was $501,027, down a not-insane 9% from last year. However, the $516/sf average was down 23% from last year, and remained flat over last quarter. Hmm!
Queens: Meanwhile to the north, the Queens average sales price of $396,756 was an 11.5% fall from last year and 6.5% drop from last quarter. Number of sales were down a whopping 45%, with spring bounce and first-time buyer interest leading to an 18% rise from the prior quarter. It's a big, unwieldy borough, so let's get to the goods: Long Island City, lumped into Northwest Queens. The number of sales (162) was half of last year's transactions, and dead even with last quarter. Looking just at condos, there were interesting results! New development market share was 37% of all sales in Northwest Queens (up from 25.9%), and the median condo sales price of $549,885 was actually up 3.5% over last year, but down 17.3% from last quarter. The $666/sf average in the area was down only slightly from last year and last quarter, so it looks like not everyone is fleeing those contracts negotiated long ago.
The judges have ruled: LIC 1, Williamsburg 0. Thoughts?
· Market Reports [Elliman]
· Curbed Roundtable: July State O' the Market Report [Curbed]
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