Page 2 Nov. 5-11, 2015 Tribune/Press Real estate MaRketplace A Borough Battle: Queens Conquers Manhattan in Quarter Three Market Reports By MICHAEL STAHL Real estate market reports for the traditionally more humble third quarter have emerged. With a usual summer slowdown, market growth tends to not be as robust through the July and September months. But with sudden economic speed bumps setting a generally unsavory tone this year, Quarter 3 was a harder pill to swallow for some, namely those entrenched in the Manhattan market. Douglas Elliman s survey of co-op and condo sales there revealed an average sales price drop of 7.2 percent when compared to Q2 numbers. Town Residential reported a decrease of 4.5 percent, while Brown Harris Stevens says their calculations for Manhattan sales prices showed a 4 percent dip over the same time period as well. Though they were small, last year s reports from Douglas Elliman and Brown Harris Stevens showed price gains between Q2 and Q3, while Town Residential s slight 0.79 percent depression over that 2014 span barely registers, pointing to another great contrast with this year s findings. Sunnier real estate skies shined A recent report posted on StreetEasy.com revealed that the gap between Manhattan and Queens rents is shrinking, most notably in the outer borough s rapidly developing neighborhood of Long Island City. across the Queensboro and RFK bridges though. Douglas Elliman s Queens residential sales survey for Q3 unveiled a whopping 15.5 percent leap in average sales prices over the course of the quarter. The median sales price skyrocketed 17.1 percent from Q2 s $385,001 to $450,865, and the overall number of sales ballooned 43.4 percent over that timespan. Price indicators set records for condos, co-ops and one-to-threefamily homes in Queens, while each region saw prices swell with the lone exception being perhaps not unexpectedly given the nearby Manhattan numbers Long Island City. That neighborhood experienced a sharp 21 percent average sales price decline between Q2 and Q3. As many might predict in a time of relative economic uncertainty, it is the luxury market that takes the first hit. Brown Harris Stevens wrote in their Manhattan report: A decline in high-end sales was responsible for the drop in average prices, and Douglas Elliman noted that Luxury housing prices showed weaker results than the overall market with their report- STATS COURTESY DOUGLAS ELLIMAN ed price-per-square-luxury-foot slipping 6.2 percent between Q2 and Q3. It s worth noting too that Town Residential s primary focus throughout the company is the luxury market. The Douglas Elliman Queens report takes all sales into account luxury or not while also incorporating the one-to-three-family housing market, which is ignored in the Manhattan findings. One might argue that because more generally affordable housing is included in the Douglas Elliman Queens report the massive differences between the Queens and Manhattan average sales prices could While Manhattan prices have dropped in the last quarter, Queens prices have continued to rise. be misleading. However, the Queens luxury market sizzled in the summer as well. According to Douglas Elliman s report, The luxury market had a record high entry threshold of $925,000 and price gains consistent with the overall market. A new median luxury sales price was logged in Queens Q3 $1,147,766 and luxury average sales prices rose 12.2 percent between Q2 and Q3. (Brown Harris Stevens and Town Residential do not release Queens market reports.) Microscopic inventory figures in both boroughs are the primary reasons behind record sales prices Manhattan did register a year-overyear growth in sales prices of 7.4% in spite of the quarter-to-quarter misstep. Still, the biggest market growth was undoubtedly found in Queens. Hopefully, as the outer borough s prices rise and, like in Manhattan, sellers continue to boast considerable leverage in negotiations, buyers won t be scared out of the market. On Rents, LIC Is Catching Manhattan Nabes By MICHAEL STAHL The median asking rent in LIC reached $2,756 per month in August, just 11 percent lower than Manhattan s mark of $3,092. The report also indicated that rent prices in LIC have leaped 12.8 percent over the past five years. [LIC s] proximity to Manhattan and subway connectivity have always been an attractive pull for New Yorkers, Alan Lightfeldt, a StreetEasy data scientist, wrote to the Tribune. More recently, the influx of modern high-rise rental buildings to the area have pushed up rent levels. Lightfeldt was quick to point out that other figures unveiled in the report should arguably be more alarming to Queens residents though. Although [LIC] remains the most expensive rental market in Queens, its five-year growth rate is a fraction of what other Queens neighborhoods have experienced. Building owners in Kew Gardens, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights and Rego Park have enjoyed five-year rental growth rates ranging between 14.8 percent and 24.2 percent. But hikes in those neighborhoods all of which out-ranked LIC pale in comparison to the vaulting rates present in two others. Corona s median asking rent price in August was $1,597 per month, a robust 34.8 percent increase from five years ago, while Astoria tied Morningside Heights for the biggest jump in the entire city with an astounding 78.6 percent growth rate over that same time period. This is a telling sign of a mature rental market, Lightfeldt observed. The StreetEasy report centered around the fact that four Brooklyn neighborhoods have in fact surpassed Manhattan rent rates, with (continued on page 88)
Tribune/Press Real estate MaRketplace Nov. 5-11, 2015 Page 3 Number of Luxury Home Sales in Queens Sees All- Time High As home prices in Brooklyn are breaking new records every quarter, Queens has been welcoming waves of home buyers searching for more affordable housing options. The offer is indeed attractive: at $380,000, the median home price recorded in October in Queens is still fairly low compared to the median price paid for a Brooklyn home over the same period -- $585,000. However, the trend in home prices is slowly going upwards even in Queens. The median price calculated for the first 10 months of this year, $362,000, is the highest since 2007. Although we re not seeing a significant ascent yet and home prices might still be unstable at this point, the phenomenon we re seeing in Brooklyn may pick up even in Queens. *For calculating the median home sale price, only the transactions closed in the first 10 months of each year were taken into account. Luxury home buyers come to Queens But it s not only average home buyers that Queens has been seeing a lot of lately. Luxury buyers have also been taking an interest into the borough s upper-end market segment. According to real estate data provider PropertyShark, the number of Queens homes that sold for over $1 million in the first ten months of 2015 has just registered an all-timehigh. There were 287 luxury homes which were sold across Queens from January to October 2015.* *To be able to draw a fair comparison between 2015 and the previous years, when calculating the total number of luxury sales only the transactions closed in the first 10 months of each year were counted. What neighborhoods are luxury buyers targeting? Hunters Point is the neighborhood which registered the biggest number of luxury home sales this year. There have been 48 properties with price tags of $1 million and up which found new owners in Hunters Point, and most of them were condos. According to PropertyShark, Hunters Point is also the area which registered the most impressive in- crease in median home price per square foot between 2004 and 2014 a 132 percent growth, from $399 to $924. The other neighborhoods where a good number of pricey homes was sold this year were: Forrest Hills (33 luxury home sales), Forest Hills Gardens (22 luxury home sales), Bayside (19 luxury homes sales), and Whitestone (16 luxury home sales). According to the New York Daily News, many buyers of luxury properties in Queens are foreign, coming from China, Greece, Brazil, India, and even Tibet and Nepal.
Page 4 Nov. 5-11, 2015 Neighborhood Spotlight: Flushing: Get In While You Can By Michael Stahl With the Mets baseball season coming to an unfortunate close this week, when people read up on anything Flushing related in the coming months there s a greater likelihood it will be of a real estate focus than one featuring America s pastime. A handful of Flushing Commons condos are expected to go on sale any day now, with reports speculating that asking prices for the one- to four-bedroom homes in the development will range between $650,000 and $2.5 million. The F&T Group the primary developers behind the tremendous five-acre, mixed-use Flushing Commons project already opened One Fulton Square, another mixed-use development featuring a Hyatt Place hotel and 43 luxury condos on Prince Street off 39th Avenue, one year ago. In south Flushing, the McSam Hotel Group is putting up two residential towers offering a total of 222 new units, while Onex Real Estate Part- Photo by Domenick RafteR Flushing Commons rises from the former Muni Lot 1 in Downtown Flushing, where the real estate market has been unrelenting in recent years. ners is looking forward to phase two of Sky View Parc, which will include three more residential towers, after the success of phase one in 2011. There are the brothers George and Chris Xu, who head the Century Development Group and United Construction and Development Group, respectively, to contend with too. George is currently planning a 210- key Four Points Sheraton hotel with an additional 100 apartment units at 134-21 35th Avenue, while Chris is seeking to redevelop the site of a building-supplies business at 134-03 35th Avenue, with a similar 210-key hotel and 134 separate apartments. All of these projects and scores point more to Flushing becoming an undeniable real estate hotspot, both in the commercial and residential sectors, an area investors should buy into immediately before housing prices begin an inevitable incline. An exclusive Queens Tribune report from StreetEasy.com with information culled from the city s Department of Finance shows housing rates have actually slipped over the course of the past 12 24 months. During the most recent recession, the median sales price of all Flushing properties sunk to $272,776 in 2009. That figure reached an alltime high in 2013 after a 30 percent year-over-year increase raised it to Tribune/Press Real estate MaRketplace $464,500. However, a 12 percent decline last year has been followed by another dip this year. Through Oct. 30, the median sales price in Flushing for 2015 sits at just $393,800. When held up against Douglas Elliman s Queens Quarter Three market report, as well as the latest sales statistics from Trulia.com, the current median Flushing price ranks slightly below that of the borough s. The condo market, which accounts for more than half the sales inventory on the StreetEasy report, is the main culprit in Flushing s slight real estate swoon. While homes and townhouses along with co-ops have seen small surges in price growth this year, condos have lost traction, with the median sales price for 2015 registering at $460,650 nearly $20,000 less than last year s number. These declines are likely due to an increase in inventory Flushing is one of the few places in the five boroughs with such a stockpile. There may also be an influx of sellers who have to reexamine their asking prices, which, according to the Street- Easy report, are at an all-time high. (The median asking price in Flushing this year is $644,944.) Still, if just a few of those highend properties are sold by year s end, the median sales price figure will improve. With many more such investment opportunities on the way, there s no telling what people will be paying for Flushing homes come 2016 and beyond. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD MORTGAGE EXPERTS Ridgewood understands the needs of its communities & develops specific product benefits to meet those needs. For more information call 866-RSB-4111 Member FDIC EQUAL HOUSING LENDER www.ridgewoodbank.com Terms subject to change without notice. *LTVs apply
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Page 6 Nov. 5-11, 2015 By Michael Stoler Tribune/Press Real estate MaRketplace Outer Boroughs Lead in Residential Sales Volume and Price Growth Sales volume and sales price for residential housing increased in the third quarter and especially in the outer boroughs. John Banks, President, REBNY, said the growth in the average sales price in the boroughs shows the continuing strength of the housing market. Buyers are looking beyond Manhattan for homes in exciting and thriving residential neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The total consideration for all residential sales (cooperatives, condominiums, and one-to-three family dwellings in Brooklyn, was $2.62 billion, a surge of 31.1 percent, while Queens home sales were $2 billion, a 25.1 percent jump. The average sales price of a home in New York City during the quarter was $888,000. The average sales price for a home in the outer boroughs saw strong growth with increases of 18 percent to $822,000 in Brooklyn, seven percent to $495,000 in Queens; and nine percent to $389,000 in the Bronx. The average sales price of an apartment in New York City during the third quarter was $1,029,000. The average sales price of an apartment in Manhattan was $1,530,000. Brooklyn, with an average sales price of $688,000, had an 16 percent increase since the third quarter of last years. The average sales price of an apartment in Queens during the quarter was $310,000, a one percent increase over the year. The Bronx average sales prices of $263,000 up 4 peent from last years third quarter. The Douglas Elliman data reported that Brooklyn and Queens set new records for median and average sales price. Brooklyn median sales price was $676,250. The median sales price for Queens in the neighborhoods of Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside is $450,865, a 14 percent increase from last year at this time. The average sales price of a condominium was $1,460,000. The average sales price of condo in Manhattan during the quarter was $2,056,000. The Brooklyn average sales prices went up 20 percent to $905,000from the third quarter of 2014. The average price in Queens was $504,000, a four percent increase from last year s third quarter. The average sales price of a cooperative unit in NYC was $778,000, with Manhattan at $1,193,000. Brooklyn saw an increase in average sales price of 16 percent of $500,000 since the third quarter of 2014 and the average sales price of coop in Queens rose 5 percent to $259,000. The average sales price of a coop unit in the Bronx increased three percent to $249,000. Sales of 3 family dwelling in New York City during the third quarter increased 7 percent from last year s third quarter average to $719,000. The Brooklyn average sales price was $925,000, up 17 percent from the third quarter of 2014. The average sales price in Queens rose 7 percent to $612,000. The average sales price in the Bronx increased 9 percent to $440,000. While in Staten Island the average was $456,000 an increase of one percent. Sales of condominiums in Queens were down for the third quarter of 2015, with Flushing having 67 condominium sales a decrease of 6 percent and the most of any neighborhood in Queens. The average price of a condominium in Flushing was $487,000 a 4 percent increase from the third quarter of 2014. The total number of home sales in New York City has increased by 11 percent year over year to 13,302, again with the largest gains seen outside Manhattan. In Brooklyn, home sales saw a 12 percent translating to 3,193 sales, Queens by 17 percent to 4,040, and the Bronx by 35 percent to 917. The Queens neighborhoods with the most home sales this quarter were: Rego Park/Forest Hills/Kew Gardens (464); Flushing (374), Jackson Heights/Elmhurst (332), Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park/ Woodhaven (317), Springfield Gardens/Jamaica/South Jamaica/Baisley Park (379), Laurelton/Cambria Heights/St. Albans/Rosedale (238).
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Page 8 Nov. 5-11, 2015 LIC Rents (continued from page 2) Dumbo representing the fourth most-expensive neighborhood to rent in all of New York. Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and Downtown Brooklyn also have median asking rent figures that surpass Manhattan s. Still, that offers little consolation for LIC renters, either pre-existing or those hopeful to move into arguably the city s most burgeoning neighborhood. It s unlikely that rents will see the same degree of growth [in LIC] as more up-and-coming neighborhoods like Corona or Astoria, Lightfeldt wrote, but the growing tide of renters pushed out of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn will likely mean that rents in Long Island City will continue to climb. To read the entire report, visit www.streeteasy.com/blog/pricegap-separating-manhattan-brooklyn-and-queens-getting-smaller/ StatS CourteSy StreeteaSy.Com Long Island City rents are higher than in some desired Manhattan neighborhoods including the Upper East Side. Ridgewood Ale House Building Sells For $2.6M Real Estate company CPEX s Retail Investment Sales Team recently sold 57-38 Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood. The threestory, 3,800 square foot retail building sold for $2.6 million or approximately $684 per square foot. Prior to the sale, CPEX s Retail Leasing Team triple-net leased the entire building to Ridgewood Ale House. The driving force behind this transaction was the asset s location on the best block of the premier retail corridor that spans the entire Ridgewood neighborhood, said Andre Sigourney, associate director of Tribune/Press Real estate MaRketplace 57-38 Myrtle Ave., sold for $2.6M. CPEX s Retail Sales Team. We believe the transformation of Ridgewood and the surrounding area is only just beginning to scratch the surface of the growth potential for retail. CPEX s Retail Sales Team, consisting of Sigourney and Associates Harrison Balisky, Dimitri Venekas and Nash Larmoyeux, represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction. CPEX s Retail Leasing Team, consisting of Managing Director Ryan Condren, Associate Director George Danut, and Associate Keat Chew, previously represented the landlord in negotiating the lease with Ridgewood Ale House. Photo CourteSy CPex