New York Housing In Free-Fall; Opportunities for "Cash-Heavy Investors"
Sunday's Daily News had two sobering items on local real estate. They informed us that "In the last four years, Brooklyn suffered a stunning 52.7% drop in the sale of homes" -- with a 37.5 percent drop in the last year alone. Queens house sales dropped by 48.4 percent in four years, 34.8 percent in the past year. Even desirable neighborhoods like Richmond Hill and Astoria are feeling the pinch. And Deborah Gonzalez told the News that her two-family home in Bushwick -- which the Times was calling "The Next Neighborhood" in 2006 -- went on the market in April for $800K, but now she's asking for $540K. Bushwick's four- and one-year house sales drops are 72.7 and 56.7 percent, respectively.
Reuters reports that Manhattan's housing inventory rose 27 percent in the 3rd quarter, but sales were down by a third from the previous year. Median sales prices rose, though, by 7.4 percent. Guess realtors and brokers are still feeling that irrational exuberance.
Oh, our commercial real estate market sucks too, per a new report. But the authors are cheerful: "There will be pockets of opportunity for cash-heavy investors in discounted loans, distressed debt, raw land, apartment buildings and other niches." Feel better?
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