South Brooklyn’s Midwood has arrived

Is it Midwood’s time to shine? The South Brooklyn neighborhood, bordered by Sheepshead Bay and Flatbush and known as something of a suburban enclave, is rapidly changing as homebuyers retreat further south in search of value.

In recent years, immigrants from China, Eastern Europe and South Asia have spurred a boom in the Midwood housing market. The neighborhood was listed as one of the 10 hottest neighborhoods to watch for in 2016 by StreetEasy.

Renters and buyers are flocking to the South Brooklyn neighborhood in search of better prices, according to the Wall Street Journal. The median price for a condo in South Brooklyn was $525,000 in 2015, about half of the median condo sales price in northwest Brooklyn, the Journal reported.

“People who may have lived downtown or outside of Brooklyn are exploring and coming to Midwood, and they’re discovering it for the first time,” said Charles D’Alessandro, a real estate agent with Fillmore Real Estate.

Bakeries, bagel shops and kosher grocers populate the commercial sections on Avenues M and J. As development and a new wave of residents move in, older properties like the Vitagraph Studios motion picture complex have bitten the dust.

In September, StreetEasy reported that Midwood’s rental market had the quickest rental rate across the city, with leases being signed within 11 days of listing. [WSJ] — James Kleimann