No longer constrained to a single borough, buyers eye similar ‘hoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn

From the June issue: It’s no secret that Brooklyn home prices have been on the rise for years, as the borough’s idyllic brownstones increasingly lure artsy buyers out of Manhattan. And in the past few years, brokers told The Real Deal, they’ve seen more home-seekers looking simultaneously at Manhattan and Brooklyn, often considering neighborhoods with similar vibes.

Park Slope, for example, has long been viewed as essentially a cheaper version of the Upper West Side. Five years ago, according to StreetEasy, the median asking price of an apartment on the Upper West Side was $919,800, significantly more expensive than the $625,730 median in Park Slope.

That gap has now shrunk. The median sale price for an apartment in Park Slope was $675,000 in the first quarter, a 7.9 percent jump from the first quarter of 2008, StreetEasy’s data shows. During the same time period, the median price on the Upper West Side dropped by 2.5 percent to $897,000.

This is an excerpt from “The not-so-outer borough,” which originally appeared in The Real Deal’s June issue. To read the complete article click here.