Halstead Property

100 Years And Counting

A look back at 20 of the biggest stories and most colorful real estate figures The Real Deal has covered since launching
 
By Gabby Warshawer

2008

Brownstone Brooklyn real estate is trading at high volumes, despite the tentative market.

When The Real Deal started publishing, only two Manhattan-based residential real estate firms had offices in Brooklyn: Corcoran and William B. May. By the following year, 2004, Brown Harris Stevens had inked a deal to take over William B. May's offices in the borough, and Halstead Property and Prudential Douglas Elliman had also opened Brooklyn outposts. At the time, Halstead President Diane Ramirez noted that Brooklyn offered relative affordability compared to Manhattan. But prices in prime Brooklyn neighborhoods have skyrocketed in the years since Ramirez's statement: A $7 million sale at Dumbo's Clock Tower Condominium set a record as the priciest condo to ever sell in the borough, while a handful of Brooklyn Heights townhouses fetched more than $10 million. In tandem, The Real Deal's coverage of Brooklyn has drastically evolved since those early days, as we've dissected the market in the borough, done a first-ever ranking of its top brokers, and written about new development from Bushwick to Brooklyn Heights. The condo boom, meanwhile, changed the landscape in areas like Williamsburg and Downtown Brooklyn. Still, the crush of new development meant Brooklyn was particularly hard-hit by the late-2008 crash: In October 2009, 47 percent of all stalled construction sites in the city were in Brooklyn, and prices had dropped to 2005 levels. As of this year, NYU's Furman Center was reporting that Brooklyn prices had plummeted more than 30 percent from the market's peak. But brokerage reports covering Brooklyn have recently indicated a generally stable sales market, with properties in the northwest "brownstone Brooklyn" trading at a high volume and posting price increases.

Thursday, September 01, 2011