Prices for Long Island City’s larger apartments increase, while smaller units see drops

Prices for Long Island City apartments were mixed in the first quarter of 2013, with larger units commanding higher prices than previous months, and smaller units seeing price-per-square-foot declines, according to a market report issued today by Modern Spaces. Both a shrinking inventory and increased demand for housing in the neighborhood factored into the price climbs, the brokerage said.

The average sale price of a two-bedroom in the area rose 11 percent to $1 million, compared to $900,000 in the preceding six months, the report says. (Modern Space’s most recent numbers track prices in July through December of 2012; year-over-year figures from the first quarter of 2012 were not available.)

Meanwhile, the average price per square foot for a two-bedroom increased slightly, hitting $800 from the high $700s in the previous six months.

Two-bedrooms made up 62 percent of sales in the area in the first quarter of 2012, an increase from the last six months of 2012, when the same unit type accounted for 48 percent of transactions.

However, prices per square foot for smaller unit types fell. For example, a studio fetched an average of about $730 per square foot in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $760 in the prior period. One-bedrooms on average fetched $500,000, down 16.7 percent from almost $600,000.

However, the average price per square foot for homes under contract, as opposed to closed sales, increased 12 percent in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. (The tally includes studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms.) —Zachary Kussin

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that studio units fetched about $700 per square foot in the first quarter, compared to $800 in the July to December 2012 period. In fact, a studio averaged $730 per square foot in the first quarter and $760 in the prior period.