Brooklyn Real Estate in Tailspin

It still shocks me that brokers/realtors/owners really believed that the economy could sustain the kind of overinflated prices we saw for the past couple of years!

Sellers can hang on and stick by their high askings so long as they are employed. The crack in this dam is the employment environment, which is now beginning to turn ugly. Unless the clouds magically part, there will be some big job losses in NYC and not only on Wall St. Then these sellers will have to actually sell...or lose everything.

And the rents will drop for the same reason. Fewer gainfully employed people competing for the same units. When landlords find themselves sitting on too many empties, they will drop rents, but only after the usual gimmicky "free rent" and "easy move in" bullshit.

"But construction worker Alex Reyes sees the silver lining: "'I'm finally getting close to being able to afford a home.'"

Gotta hand it to Mr. Reyes: that must have been a really tough silver lining to see.

Mihow, the problem is that many sellers grabbed the property when it was overvalued and can't afford to come down. To make life more fun, many sellers got Variable Rate Mortgages too.

Then they'll face the correct solution for their problems: foreclosure. And we may yet be able to afford to buy those foreclosed properties.

There were two houses for sale on our block recently. Total gut jobs going for just around 800. (So, yeah, on top of that large price, you're looking at close to a 100 grand in making it livable? anyway...) They weren't snatched by families or couples. I imagine it's because most people don't want to deal with renovating a house. Time and money, etc. So, they eventually went to developers. They were split up and now they are renting for 2500 an apartment.

It made me want to cry.

I doubt many sellers are actually taking a LOSS, they are just not getting the 1.5 million dollar profit they expected to make when they bought these places a few years back.

Meanwhile, little people like us who make a decent living and would love to buy a home in our neighborhoods can never afford to do it.

i summon ihateallbrokers to this thread.

Sellers need to come down (that includes all the damned developers). If they come down in price, like the rest of the nation has, then they will sell. It's that simple. There are only so many millionaires out there to buy up all this shit and no bank wants to give out massive loans to those who don't have the massive downpayments, etc.

Even NYC will see the effects of the housing bubble, and you can laugh at that jerk broker when she's not pulling in those huge commissions anymore

The government may bail out the lenders so they don't have to write everything off, but even still, it will create a tougher mortgage market, which creates fewer buyers, which lowers the demand, and lowers housing prices.

Twenty percent is the projected decline for the second half of '08. NYC's could be far greater as they haven't experience the pain others have in the first half of '08.

Someone please tell this to the idiots who are still erecting gigantic, super-expensive condos on every block.

S.D. they CAN afford to, they just don't want to. I can't blame them, but every house can sell, every house has a price. If you have to take a loss because you simply have to sell and move on, then so be it. I know it sucks, but that's how it works. Home buying is risky, especially when you spend an arm and a leg in the first place and think it's going to continue to rise as it has.

Anyway, I feel bad for some folks, but that's the way it goes.

Come down in price. Your house will sell.

NO! Rents are so not coming down! They are up because no one wants to really buy here (or can't afford to). Seriously. Rents are up everywhere, not only in NYC.

Granted, I can't back these numbers up with any links, but I did get word of that somewhere along the way. ;]

"This is definitely not good,"

For you. Not for us.

Asshole.

Mihow, the problem is that many sellers grabbed the property when it was overvalued and can't afford to come down. To make life more fun, many sellers got Variable Rate Mortgages too.

hell fucking yes.

Oh, please! When we were looking for a new rental, our broker asked if we were interested in buying as well. We said yes and told her how much we could spend. She actually LAUGHED at us when we told her what we could afford to buy. And I don't feel that it was particularly cheap, either. After she laughed she said, "Yeah, you don't stand a chance in this neighborhood." (We live in Greenpoint/Williamsburg)

Sellers need to come down (that includes all the damned developers). If they come down in price, like the rest of the nation has, then they will sell. It's that simple. There are only so many millionaires out there to buy up all this shit and no bank wants to give out massive loans to those who don't have the massive downpayments, etc.

Come down in price, sellers. And things will pick up again.

(I'm slightly bitter about this topic because we've been out-priced here in brooklyn and we make a decent living.)

So, when are rents going to go down?

This reminds me of the NJ real estate sales figures a couple of months ago, where they said sales had grown (4 or 5%?), and then they gave a small notice in a local paper that, ehm, well, they were wrong... sales had dropped 30%.

How do you go from +5% to -30%?!? Hate brokers...

boo fuckin hoo

yeah, seriously.

Oh the poor poor brokers

You mean property might actually sell for its actual value heaven forbid the middle class can afford property again in the city