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Brooklyn home sales remain red-hot

High demand and low supply lead to another quarter of record sales, with median home prices up 20%

Brooklyn townhouses
Photo: Flickr/Jay Woodworth

The price of Brooklyn homes skyrocketed during the second quarter of the year—again. The borough’s explosive growth has continued nearly unabated since the Great Recession. At a time when real estate experts are wondering where the price ceiling is, the market notched another quarter of solid gains as the median price of a home reached a record $795,000.

That is more than 20% higher than the same time last year, and marks the fourth consecutive quarter in a row to set a median price record.

“We don’t really know where the limit is,” said Jonathan Miller, whose appraisal firm Miller Samuel authored a market report for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “It doesn’t feel like it’s slowing down.”

In fact, the pace of the market is the fastest that Miller has ever recorded. Buyers snapped up 2,845 homes, the highest volume in a decade, with nearly a quarter of those trading at above the listing price, suggesting bidding wars were common. Meanwhile, available inventory fell to its lowest level in nine years and is expected to remain low as would-be sellers hold off advertising their digs in the hopes that prices will rise even higher in the future.

Brooklyn’s powerful market may also be warping home sales beyond the borough’s borders.

“Brooklyn is not only driving up its own numbers, it is impacting the areas around it, specifically Queens and the suburban markets,” Miller said.

While less intense, the numbers in Queens show a similar dynamic: Demand drove up the median sale price to a record $510,000, nearly 10% higher than the same time last year. That demand along with inaction from holdout, would-be sellers contributed to its lowest inventory in 12 years. Demand for homes on the market created the fastest-paced second quarter Miller has recorded in a dozen years.

Crain’s New York