Does a hot market mean Brooklyn has lost its cool?

Brooklyn’s well-to-do hipster establishment is setting out for more bohemian enclaves

Williamsburg
Williamsburg

With Brooklyn’s home prices and rents rapidly approaching Manhattan heights, even the borough’s well-to-do hipster establishment is getting priced out.

Long-time Brooklynites and newcomers alike are increasingly leaving the borough for cheaper and more bohemian domiciles, according to the New York Times.

For example, Jeff Huston and his wife, Lisa Medvedik-Huston recently left their apartment in Williamsburg after they became discouraged by the cost of housing, as well as the arrival of chain stores and tourists.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“I can’t tell you how many listings said, ‘cash only,’ ” Huston, who considered buying everything from a $500,000 apartment to a $900,000 fixer-upper rowhouse, told the Times. “That was a wake-up call.”

Huston and his wife ultimately realized that they had to leave their beloved Brooklyn behind, paying $550,000 for a 2,000-square-foot loft in a converted suitcase factory in Jersey City Heights.

“We weren’t sure there was anyone like us in the neighborhood,” he said. Then, he added, a Brooklyn-style coffee shop arrived. “The line down the street was all people like us. We could have been in Williamsburg. It was all, like, expats.” [NYT]Christopher Cameron