By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — It almost seems unreal to report on new Brooklyn real estate statistics — up and going up — when the national news is so grim. Just Tuesday, Morgan Stanley announced cutting 600 jobs after “a decline in mortgage-related revenue that led to lower third-quarter earnings than analysts expected.�

But the major real estate firms that serve Brooklyn are beginning to report some year-to-date and third quarter sales numbers, and in most respects, it’s about the same tune for the past few years.

There are a lot of reasons for these trends, many well-understood, but a new dynamic has begun to make an impact: some of the new high-rise buildings in Downtown Brooklyn are getting filled up, and this pattern will continue for several more months.

For example, in a new report, Halstead Property said, “Once a less expensive alternative to Manhattan, Brooklyn has now become the first-choice destination for many homebuyers.�

Halstead went on to report that in the first six months of 2007, the median price for houses in brownstone Brooklyn was $1.645 million, up 22 percent from a year ago. The apartment market, Halstead also reports, has remained strong with a median price of $618,000 — 16 percent higher than during the first half of 2006.

The Corcoran Group this week showed that the average sales price for Brooklyn in the third quarter of this year was 11 percent higher than in the third quarter of 2006 and that the number of deals increased from 377 to 484, a 28 percent rise.

Looking at some basic numbers, sales of townhouses, co-ops and condos in the third quarter of 2007 came to about $434 million, compared to $243 million in the same period of last year. The number of deals was also up, as was the price per square foot.

Halstead also takes note that in the brownstone communities, most of which are landmarked, there is little new construction, “so that when a home comes to market, there is a feeding frenzy,� usually meaning multiple bids.

In the Brooklyn section of one Halstead portfolio, the firm lists 17 properties that are available, 10 of which are condos. But the average asking price comes out to $1.1 million, showing an affluent market.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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