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From the May issue: The land grab is on in Brooklyn. With prices and sales activity rebounding, the borough’s major real estate firms are competing for market share as smaller mom-and-pop firms disappear.
The borough’s three largest firms — Fillmore Real Estate, the Corcoran Group, and Prudential Douglas Elliman — have all added more Brooklyn agents in the past year.
The 45-year-old, family-run Fillmore jumped to 350 agents on The Real Deal’s ranking of biggest firms in the borough this year, taking the top spot. That was up from 288 last year, and last month the firm had some $130.8 million worth of active residential sales listings. [more]

From left, Frank Percesepe of Corcoran and Michael Guerra of Elliman

Brooklyn condominium units were in high demand during the first quarter, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group, with new developments powering the sales spike.

Condo sales soared 61.1 percent to 923 units, from 573 units in the same period last year, the Elliman’s first quarter market report, prepared by Miller Samuel, says. The median price jumped 1 percent from last quarter, and 7.2 percent from a year ago at the same time, Elliman determined.

“It looked like 2010 was setting this year up for a return to normalcy, and that’s exactly what we’ve found,” said Michael Guerra, director of sales for Elliman’s Brooklyn division.
[more]

After an erratic several months in Brooklyn and Queens, due largely to pent up demand and the first-time homebuyer tax credit, the residential market in the two boroughs may be stabilizing, according to a Prudential Douglas Elliman report covering both boroughs released today.

The median residential sales prices climbed in the fourth quarter compared to the same three months in 2009, while the number of sales dropped in both boroughs.

In Brooklyn, the figure rose 6.2 percent to $475,000, while sales dropped 29.9 percent to 1,468 from 2,093. In Queens, meanwhile, the price increased 5.4 percent to $369,000, as home sales plummeted 41.7 percent. Last quarter saw 2,483 sales in Queens, compared to 4,260 during fourth-quarter 2009. [more]

Michael Guerra

Queens and Brooklyn — which both got a significant boost from the
federal homebuyer tax credit — saw real estate sales jump in the
second quarter of 2010, according [more]

Brooklyn and Queens have seen sharp spikes in residential sales activity since last year, along with a growing momentum in the high-end market, according to a quarterly market report released today by Prudential Douglas Elliman. But Brooklyn appears to be recovering faster than Queens, which has been devastated by high foreclosure rates. “They’ve both doing better than they were a year ago,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of Miller Samuel and the preparer of the report. But “Queens is trailing Brooklyn,” he said. The number of sales in Brooklyn jumped 56.9 percent to 1,861 sales in the first quarter of 2010, from 1,186 in the same period of 2009, the report shows. In Queens, there were 3,113 sales, 72.8 percent more than the prior-year quarter. Eric Benaim, CEO of Long Island City-based brokerage Modern Spaces, said he’s noticed a significant uptick in activity in the borough since last year. [more]

Ken Freeman, senior vice president of sales with Massey Knakal, left, and Lee Soloman, a director with Brown Harris Stevens

From the January issue: If ever there were a Brooklyn neighborhood to lead the way for a rebound, it would be Park Slope. With its well-kept brownstones and its proximity to Prospect Park, Park Slope is routinely cited as one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the borough. But while it has seen a recent uptick in activity, even Park Slope has felt the market slide. Brokers interviewed for this month’s Q & A told The Real Deal that they saw more transactions in the final months of last year compared to the abysmal lack of trades before that. But they said that even properties that were “marginally overpriced” were still not getting the time of day from buyers. Part of the improvement can be traced back to the fact that inventory is down. That’s because Park Slope sellers who can avoid putting their properties on the market for the low prices are holding back. As one source put it, that low inventory is “an advantage for those that are currently listed.” For more on what’s happening with prices, sales volume and buyers in Park Slope, we turn to our panel of experts. more