From left: Jonathan Miller and Sofia KimNational trends held true in the local market last quarter as sales declined sharply in Brooklyn and Queens, according to a first-quarter market report released today by Prudential Douglas Elliman. “[Sales are] really the driving force in housing because transaction activity leads to price trends,” said Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, who prepared the report. Sales volume in Brooklyn dropped 57 percent year-over-year to 1,186 sales of co-op, condo, and one-to-three family properties in the first quarter of this year from 2,761 sales in the first quarter of 2008. Sales in the borough dropped 36 percent between fourth-quarter 2008 and first-quarter 2009. [more]
