While residential prices held steady throughout Brooklyn in 2012′s second quarter, a marked decline in inventory and a notable uptick in brownstone sales raised the bar for pricing in Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill.
Prudential Douglas Elliman’s just-released market report, which tracks co-op, condominium and one- to three-family homes in Brooklyn, reveals a median sales price for the entire borough of $586,000, up 2% year-over-year. However, for Brooklyn brownstones specifically, the median price was $1.3 million, up 9.5%.
While the brownstone market comprises only 3% of all residential inventory in Brooklyn, “it is the highest-priced housing stock,” according to Jonathan Miller, president of real estate analytics firm Miller Samuel and author of the market report.
Likewise, Brown Harris Stevens’ 2Q stats for the borough show an overall increase of 13% percent in median prices in Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, to $890,000, where most of the borough’s brownstones are located.
Prices in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, meanwhile, dropped year-over-year.
Borough-wide, Prudential Douglas Elliman found an 18% decline in inventory, year over year, a result of “the market peaking earlier there, and the recession hitting harder. Buyers are waiting until the market improves,” Miller says.
