Halstead Property

Mentioned in this Article:

Gregory J. Heym
Executive Vice President, Chief Economist

Brooklyn House Sales Topped 6 Billion Last Year Says Halstead

East New York Led Sales of One- to Four-Family Homes

By Dennis Holt

BROOKLYN — Although the number seems unbelievable, about $6.4 billion changed hands in 2006 in the buying and selling of town houses in Brooklyn.

This impressive number, the largest recorded to date, comes from Halstead Property, a major real estate player in Brooklyn.

Last week, the firm released the details of the second-half sales of Brooklyn involving only one-to four-family homes with no commercial space. It does not include condos or co-ops in the borough.

The second-half report for 2006 shows that 4,816 homes changed hands in those six months, bringing a total purchase price of $3.206 billion. There were 46 Brooklyn neighborhoods tracked in this study.

When most people think of home buying in Brooklyn, thoughts run to multi-million-dollar homes in the brownstone neighborhoods ringing Downtown Brooklyn.

And while those eight neighborhoods accounted for about 11 percent of last-half sales with only about 4.7 percent of total homes sold, the number of 228 transactions pales by comparison with the 700 houses in East New York alone.

For a very long time, the day-to-day business of real estate in Brooklyn, as opposed to new development, has not made much news, although buying and selling residential properties throughout the borough is an ongoing, prosperous business.

The number of houses bought and sold comes to an average of 13.5 transactions every single day in the last half of 2006.

In addition to the 700 in East New York, 513 homes changed hands in Bedford-Stuyvesant, 333 in Canarsie, 369 in East Flatbush, 221 in Flatlands and 220 in Sheepshead Bay.

Theoretically, this number of transactions means that 9,600 families were affected by real estate sales during the last half of 2006.

The leading community in terms of dollar sales was also East New York, with $363.3 million. It was followed by Bedford-Stuyvesant at $317.5 million.

The sales leader for the brownstone communities was Park Slope with $143.1 million, involving 88 properties.

In terms of average sales price, Brooklyn Heights led the pack, with $3.7 million on 15 sales. Boerum Hill was next, for $1.675 million with 17 houses.

Although condo and coop sales were not included in the Halstead report, the firm, in a second analysis, reached this conclusion about the new building boom in Brooklyn:

“There is no longer any question that Brooklyn has solidified its place as a luxury residential location in its own right, not just as an economically attractive alternative.”

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007

Wednesday, April 18, 2007