Brooklyn Home Prices Hit All-Time High in Third Quarter

It's not just Manhattan where home prices are soaring. Crain's reports that the average price per square foot for homes in Brooklyn, including co-ops and condos, hit an all-time high of $867 during the third quarter, thanks to low inventory, pent-up demand and a red-hot luxury market, according to a report from Compass.

That was a 20.6% price increase year over year. Total sales volume for houses, condos and co-ops shot up by 129% compared with last year’s figure, rising from 1,530 sales in 2020 to 3,509 sales this year. Last year, thanks to the pandemic, Brooklyn recorded its fewest sales on record for any third quarter.

“I think a lot of people who put their home search on hold last year have come back to the market this year,” Compass broker Ralph Modica says. “So there was an influx of buyers – which then drove the market prices up.”

Properties selling for $3 million or higher saw the largest amount of growth by price bracket; they doubled in market share both quarter over quarter and year over year. They still made up just 5% of residential units overall, however. Homes going for between $500,000 and $1 million constituted 43% of residential units, making that the most common price range, followed by properties between $1 million and $2 million, at 31%, according to the report.

Houses made up the largest market share by property type, at 43.1%, and because they typically cost more than condos and co-ops, that played a role in the borough’s higher overall prices; The median overall sales price for residential properties was $935,000, and the properties spent an average of 134 days on the market, compared with 168 days the prior quarter. Prices in northern Brooklyn, which Compass defines as Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, increased the most, at an average price rise of 27%, while southern Brooklyn and northwest Brooklyn had the most sales, with market shares of 41.2% and 32.8%, respectively. Prices in northwest Brooklyn, which includes Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Park Slope, were the highest, at $1,184 per square foot.

The most common price point for condos was between $500,000 and $1 million, at 47% of sales, while the most common price point for co-ops was less than $500,000.