Short sales have arrived at Northside Piers, according to Curbed, as the Williamsburg development at 47 North 4th Street is seeing massive price cuts. The Toll Brothers development, which saw its last one-bedroom unit sold in June 2008 at $477,990 and come up for resale a year later at $479,000, is currently selling one-bedrooms at $399,000, a 20 percent reduction. The listing describes it as “the best value in Williamsburg,” and it’s certainly the cheapest listing in the building, but questions abound over whether the price is slashed quite enough.

Northside Piers offering more buyer incentives
After cutting prices earlier this year, the Northside Piers
development on the Williamsburg waterfront is offering a summer special
where buyers will be covered for 12 months of mortgage payments,
common charges, and real estate taxes — essentially living free for a
year. The incentive is for buyers who purchase units before August 31. Northside
Piers also offers a 25-year tax abatement
which puts real estate taxes as low as $6 dollars a month. Qualified
buyers will be offered a “Borrower’s Protection Plan”, which is also
free for one year. Prices at the buildings start at around $350,000. [more]

Toll Brothers, developer of Williamsburg’s Northside Piers project, has
ended its mortgage protection plan, which promised to pay the mortgages
of homeowners who lost their jobs for up to six months. “It just wasn’t
a dial mover,” a Toll Brothers spokesperson told CNBC. Home builder
Lennar, which offered a similar plan, said its plan is still in place
in a few markets, but that it has been more effective in some markets
than others. A Lennar spokesperson said programs that buy down the
mortgage rate have been more of an incentive to buyers. [more]

With condos in new developments sitting empty, Williamsburg developers
have to slash prices to move units. After the Toll Brothers cut prices
at Northside Piers by more than 22 percent, other buildings followed suit.
“When they dropped those prices, they made anyone inland have to look
at their prices,” said David Maundrell, president of Aptsandlofts.com.
“We had to be realistic and do what Toll Brothers is doing because it’s
only a matter of time before buyers realize they can buy for $650 [per
square foot] near the water.” Maundrell cut prices at the Evry condo,
at 273 Manhattan Avenue, to $595 per square foot. Other developers who
don’t want to drop prices have been offering incentives, like
purchasing a rooftop cabana at a discount, but brokers say the only way
to move a lot of units is by lowering prices. [more]