Home prices in Brooklyn and Queens just keep on getting higher and higher.
The median sales price in Brooklyn hit $770,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017, a 2.7 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman. The number of sales rose as well, increasing by 1.7 percent to 2,627. In Queens, the median sales price shot up 12.2 percent to $559,000 over the same time period, while the number of sales fell 7.9 percent to 3,607. The borough had seen six consecutive quarters of sales growth before this drop.
Although Brooklyn prices were up year over year, they were down from the third quarter of 2017, when the median hit $790,000. Meanwhile, home prices in Queens rose slightly from the median of $550,000 during third quarter.
Listing inventory went in opposite directions in the two boroughs during the fourth quarter, falling 23.3 percent to 1,711 in Brooklyn and rising 12 percent to 4,108 in Queens, according to the report. This was the lowest inventory on record in Brooklyn since Douglas Elliman began tracking the market in the second quarter of 2008, but marked the 21st consecutive quarter in which median sales prices had gone up.
Prices in the boroughs’ luxury markets, too, went in opposite directions, with median sales in Brooklyn dropping 1.9 percent to $2.4 million and median sales in Queens rising 0.9 percent to about $1.3 million. And new development sales took off in Queens, as the borough set records for average and median sales prices at roughly $1.1 million and $948,500, respectively.
Homes in Brooklyn stayed on the market for 92 days during the fourth quarter, down slightly from 94 days last year, while homes in Queens were on the market for 105 days, up significantly from 75. Both boroughs saw their listing discounts tick up, increasing to 4.1 percent from 1.7 percent in Brooklyn and to 1.5 percent from 0.7 percent in Queens.
Douglas Elliman CEO Steven James predicted that Queens would continue to set records moving forward.
“It all started in Long Island City, and it’s actually spread to Astoria,” he said. “I think what we’re going to see moving forward is that it branches out in other areas because the consumer wants space … and they’re going to go where [their] budget will go the furthest.”
Despite the record setting prices in Queens, the borough’s decline in sales volume and increase in sales inventory may indicate that the “Brooklyn spillover” is drying up, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel who authored the report.
“Over the past couple of quarters, we’ve seen year-over-year sales soften, and we’ve seen inventory soften,” Miller said. “[Inventory is] still very low, and sales are still very high, but we’re seeing a little bit of a change in pattern.”