Brownstone Areas Have Highest
Prices; Bed-Stuy Leads in Volume
BROOKLYN — Before the sun came up on July 1, 2005, 4,358 houses had been sold throughout Brooklyn for the rather awesome total of more than $2.2 billion, according to data compiled by Halstead Property, a major real estate firm.
This six-month total is a record for Brooklyn, and constitutes 576 more house sales than in the same period in 2004. These staggering numbers reflect Brooklyn’s share of a nationwide housing boom, bubbles or not.
The numbers represent only house sales of one to four families, not condos or co-ops. For perspective, there are about 200,000 one- to three-family houses in Brooklyn so the sale of 4,358 houses in a six-month period is not so astonishing as it might first appear.
The report by Halstead titled “Brooklyn Townhouse Sales Report: — First Half 2005,” records the number of house sales by community — there are 44 listed for Brooklyn, and the average price for those numbered sales. The sales total is obtained by multiplying the number of house sales by the average sales price.
Greg Heym, chief economist for Halstead, who oversaw the preparation of the data and the report, said that if a community had only one or two house sales in the period, it was not included in the listings but is included in the final number of sales.
Thus, the communities of DUMBO, Vinegar Hill and Fulton Ferry Landing were not included in the community listings because they contain so very few individual houses; Gowanus was not included because there is still confusion about its boundaries.
Brownstone Brooklyn, moving toward condos and co-ops, still showed 180 houses being sold during the period, totaling $332 million. This compares to $124 million, with 124 house sales in the same period in 2004.
As could be expected, Park Slope led the parade, with 67 sales totaling $82.9 million. Brooklyn Heights had the highest average sales price of $2.7 million for each house, but recorded only 10 sales in the six months. In terms of average sales price, Cobble Hill came in next at $1.6 million, with Boerum Hill and Park Slope at $1.2 million. The other brownstone communities all were above $1 million in average sales prices.
Manhattan Beach, at the end of eastern end of Coney Island, had an average of $1 million with 15 sales. (By contrast, Sea Gate, at the western end, averaged $675,000 for 15 sales).
The single community in Brooklyn with the highest total of sales was Bed-Stuy, at $220 million with 446 sales. It was followed by East New York, with $218 million and 549 house sales. (This latter number comes out to about 3 sales a day in that six month period.)
Halstead’s report broke down four residential groupings — Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Park Slope; Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights; Bed Stuy, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene; and Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
In those groupings, median prices were listed as well, which will always be higher than average prices, the average square foot for the groupings, and the average price per square foot.
The highest average price per square foot for the first six months of 2005 was the five brownstone-area listings at $506 per square foot; followed by the Bay Ridge grouping at $346, Greenpoint-Williamsburg at $308 and the Bed Stuy group at $210.
This detailed report is a pace setter for the business of trying to make sense out of the heady business of buying and selling homes, and will probably force the other major real estate firms to re-look at their data gathering and reporting.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2005
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