Goodbye, Brooklyn: Bargain hunting in Manhattan

Some well-heeled Brooklynites are being pushed back into Manhattan

The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park
The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park

At the top of the market, some Brooklyn transplants are doing the unthinkable – moving back to Manhattan in search of a better deal.

Brooklyn real estate prices have become so high that parts of Manhattan are starting to look like bargains.

According to the New York Times, prime Brooklyn neighborhoods have become so expensive that that sections of Manhattan are starting to look like a deal. The median sales price in Brooklyn hit a record $610,894 in the first quarter of this year — the first time the median has surpassed $600,000, according to a report from Douglas Elliman. And while that is obviously still less expensive than Manhattan’s median sales price of $970,000 for the same period, Manhattan – apparently – still boasts deals.

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“If you bought something early on for $500,000 and now it’s $1 million,” Jonathan Miller told the Times, your newfound wealth is just “money on paper” because “everything around you in Brooklyn has also seen that growth.”

“The trick,” he added, is to find areas that haven’t seen the same rapid ascent in prices. “And some of those areas can be found in Manhattan’s outskirts.”

Naturally, the best deals are in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods like Washington Heights, Inwood and Morningside Heights. [NYT]Christopher Cameron