THEREALDEAL REAL ESTATE NEWS
Brooklyn’s luxury contracts rebound from single digits
Weekly total doubles with signed deals for 16 homes asking $2M+
Brooklyn’s luxury market showed some signs of life last week.
After weeks of luxury contracts in the single-digits, 16 homes in the borough asking $2 million nabbed signed contracts between Jan. 22 and 28, according to Compass’ weekly report. The total was double that of the previous period.
The most expensive home to enter contract was 603 5th Street in Park Slope, with an asking price of $5.5 million. The nearly 3,000-square-foot-townhouse has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Renovated last year, the home has high ceilings, a chef’s kitchen and a backyard.
The home snagged a contract just two weeks after listing, according to the listing broker, Leslie J. Garfield’s Matthew Lesser.
It’s one of many Park Slope townhouses to land on top of Brooklyn’s weekly contract reports, including the two that led the market between Jan. 8 and Jan. 14. Those properties were priced at $5 million and $4 million.
The second priciest home to enter contract was 98 Degraw Street in the Columbia Street Waterfront District, with an asking price of $4 million. The townhouse, built in 2018, spans 3,400 square feet and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
It also features a private garage, chef’s kitchen, polished concrete floors and backyard.
The townhouse has weathered a series of price cuts since hitting the market in April 2023 with a $6 million asking price.
Of the 16 contracts inked last week, seven were for condos, one was for a co-op and eight were for townhouses.
The average asking price for the contracts was $2.8 million with an average price per square foot of $1,223. The homes spent an average of 150 days on the market and prices had a 4 percent average discount from the listing price.
Hamptons heating up, with deal volume breaking two-year record
Prices are more than double pre-pandemic levels, with high inventory
The housing market was alive and well in the Hamptons and on the North Fork during the fourth quarter, showing activity practically unseen in over two years.
Home sales in the Hamptons increased on an annual basis for the first time in 10 quarters, according to a Miller Samuel’s quarterly report for Douglas Elliman.
The story was similar on the opposite shore, as sales jumped on the North Fork on a year-over-year basis for only the second time in the last 10 quarters.
Where the two markets moved in opposing directions was on price. While pricing remained above pre-pandemic levels for the North Fork in the fourth quarter, it did decrease on an annual basis. In the Hamptons, meanwhile, pricing was more than double pre-pandemic levels, hitting record highs for the market.
The median sale price in the Hamptons last quarter was $1.85 million, while the average sale price was slightly above $4 million. Those prices represented year-over-year gains of 45.1 percent and 63.5 percent, respectively.
For the North Fork, meanwhile, the median sale price was $974,000 and the average sale price was $1.14 million.
Signs of the fourth quarter trends started emerging in a monthly snapshot released earlier this month for December. Both markets saw a long-awaited rise in home-sale contract signings, a hopeful sign after a year of sluggish activity dragged along by high mortgage rates and limited inventory.
While mortgage rates are steadying, North Fork inventory fell on an annual basis for the second consecutive three-month period in the fourth quarter. There were 3.4 months of supply in the market.
In the Hamptons, though, listing inventory increased annually for the fourth consecutive quarter. There were 1,026 listings last quarter, an 11.3-month supply for the market.
Miller Samuel’s Jonathan Miller previously told The Real Deal that the expectation of mortgage rates to decline will leave a mark on the market.
“The uptick in activity is less about rates being currently low and more about the idea that rates will continue to fall,” he said.