Where were we, Brooklyn and Queens? Ah yes: at the end of the fourth quarter, prices were up and sales were down in both neighborhoods. The first quarter reports are out today, so has this pattern shifted? In Brooklyn, yes! Prices and number of sales are up. Median sales prices rose 1.9 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010. Number of sales went up 27.5 percent. Williamsburg and Greenpoint, classified as North Brooklyn in the Elliman report, saw a 3.2 percent increase in median price, to $562,519, and a spike in sales from 127 units in Q1 2010 to 402 units last quarter. Condos made up 86.1 percent of all sales in those neighborhoods, which several brokers tell the Journal is a sign of a Brooklyn new development resurgence. So much so that they're already worried about a shortfall in condo inventory.
The Queens market didn't pick up so definitively?or really at all in terms of price. The median sales price fell 22.9 percent compared to last year's first quarter. On the upside, though, the number of sales rose 62 percent. In the new development hotbeds of Astoria and LIC, Elliman's Northwest Queens, the pattern reversed: the median sales price rose 10.9 percent, but the number of sales fell 3 percent. Elliman takes all this to mean the market is "stable," and indeed, the stats are skewed by the fact that last year's first quarter included the homebuyer tax credit. What will see in the numbers once that's no longer a factor? Reply hazy, try again.
· Market Reports [Elliman]
· Market Reports [Corcoran]
· Market Report coverage [Curbed]