Prices rose in the outer boroughs in the three months ending June 30, especially in Brooklyn and in Queens. But inventory rose, too, suggesting that, similar to Manhattan, the balance in outer-borough housing markets is shifting to buyers.
Brooklyn
The Brooklyn housing market eased into summer relatively strong, especially — and not surprisingly — on the western edges closest to Manhattan. But some of the borough’s fringe neighborhoods also finished the first half of 2006 in good shape.
The median overall sales price for Brooklyn co-ops rose 9.3 percent from the end of 2005 through the second quarter of 2006, going from $398,000 to $435,000, according to a report from the Corcoran Group. The median sales price for one-family townhouses rose 17 percent from $995,000 to $1,165,000 during the same time period. The median condo price, however, dropped 2 percent from the end of 2005 through the middle of this year, from $599,000 to $585,000.
Less trendy parts of Brooklyn picked up in recent months. “Our strongest areas to date are Canarsie and Bushwick,” said John Reinhardt, CEO of Brooklyn brokerage Fillmore Realty. “The low-end market did extremely well this quarter, especially in the last month.”
Take Red Hook, for example. The formerly industrial neighborhood keeps garnering media buzz, partly through a record townhouse deal. A townhouse on Pioneer Street sold for just over $1 million in June (see Buyers bite the (Red) Hook in Brooklyn). “Sales volume [in Brooklyn] is picking up and the prices have leveled off now,” Reinhardt says. “There was an adjustment period in the first quarter, but now the sellers are more realistic, so the volume is up.”
The Bronx
Anecdotally, inventory in some areas of the Bronx finished the second quarter higher than 2005, especially among single-family homes, according to Joe Hasselt, owner of local firm Hasselt Realty. But this rise in inventory, Hasselt said, only means that the Bronx has returned to a more traditional sales pace.
“Sellers with optimistic asking prices are forced to make reductions if they want any activity,” said Hasselt, vice president for the residential division of the Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors. “Sales are still being made, but bidding wars are over and buyers have the ability to ask for concessions on some properties. The market is finally returning to something more balanced, where home buying is a research-and-negotiate process.” The median home sales price as of early July in the Bronx, according to the Realtors’ MLS, was $400,000; the average was a little over $478,000.
Queens
Home sales and prices in Queens were both up in the spring — and up over the same time period last year. The number of existing single-family homes sold in Queens was up 22.2 percent from April through May, according to the state Association of Realtors, and the median sales price was up 1.9 percent during the same period to $581,000.
The median price for a home in Queens increased $73,700 to $503,700 in June 2006 from June 2005, passing the half-million-dollar mark for the first time, according to the Long Island Board of Realtors, Newsday reported. Donna Reardon, head of the Bayside office of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that inventory has definitely gone up in Queens, but the selling rate is still similar to 2005.
“We sold the same amount of homes from this year to last year, giving us a surplus of inventory,” Reardon said. “We’re seeing more of a normal market [in Queens]. Properties are staying on the market a little bit longer, but people are still buying at the same prices. Overall, we’re having a strong increase in prices; investors are still hungry for land. They’re still building like crazy, but what we’re seeing this year, builders are calling us to help us market their properties, whereas they didn’t need us a few years back.”
Staten Island
Home prices and sales in Staten Island increased in the second quarter, but still fell below the prices seen in the city’s smallest borough at the end of 2005.
The median sales price for an existing home went up 5.2 percent from April through May to $405,000. While this price was 14.1 percent higher than in May 2005, it was lower than the $417,000 median price for Staten Island at the end of last year.
Sales of existing homes were also down year-over-year in Staten Island. While sales were up 20.2 percent from April through May, according to the Staten Island Board of Realtors, there was an 8.7 percent decline in existing homes sales from May 2005 to this past May, suggesting that a cooling in price over the last six months did not turn sales any hotter.
Dennis Semenza, a broker at Re/Max Regal Realty who’s worked with Staten Island real estate since the 1980s, said prices were up in one- and two-family detached homes in the second quarter about 10 percent, resting in a range from $500,000 to $680,000. Overall inventory was up around 35 percent, Semenza said.
“I have had a number of Realtors call me recently and they weren’t happy in their selling inventory,” Semenza said. “When you analyze the properties they have listed, it’s clear why they did not sell — the price. Some sellers are not realistic and they will probably not be going anywhere soon.”