Curious as to how the numbers stack up in Manhattan and Brooklyn? Here’s an infographic to give you a basic overview, based on Corcoran’s most recent quarterly reports for both boroughs. (Click here to view the full Manhattan Report and click here to view the full Brooklyn Report.) The infographic highlights the median price by apartment type for each type of building covered by the report, and also gives the lowdown for which areas are likely to be your best bets for affordability.
Note – I prefer to use the median rather than the average price because the median represents the middle point – so half of all the listings noted in a given area are above that price and half are below.
The summer sales season appeared to carry on the momentum seen in Q2 2015 – the median in Manhattan was $999,000 up 12% from last year and up 5% from the previous quarter, the highest in more than 10 years. Contracts signed were up 11% year over year.
Meanwhile Brooklyn continued to be a hot ticket – the median price was $623,000, a whopping 28% year over year increase, and contracts signed were up 9% year over year.
The boroughs seemed to be on opposite trajectories concerning inventory, however – inventory decreased year over year in Manhattan by 13% while inventory in Brooklyn saw a year over year uptick of 7%.
The Takeaway
The takeaway for this quarter is pretty much the same as last quarter – if you’re looking for affordability in Manhattan, then you should consider the East Side, Midtown, Financial District/Battery Park City and Upper Manhattan, since all of these areas have prices below the median in multiple categories of apartments. Prices in Brooklyn continue to be more affordable relative to Manhattan, especially deeper into the borough, but the gap is narrowing further and further in the most popular areas.
As I’ve kept saying for the past year, in this kind of market, no matter where you’re planning to look, you should definitely consider both condos and co-ops. Even with all of the new developments slated to come onto the market this fall in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the number of properties on the market is still historically low, and co-ops have not seen the same kinds of meteoric price increases as condos and new developments. Competition will remain fairly stiff in both boroughs, so prospective buyers would be best served by considering all options available to them. Not sure what the difference is between a condo and a co-op? Or are you uncertain as to whether or not you would qualify to buy in a co-op? Then check out my past blog posts here and here for more information.
And of course, if you have more questions about the market, a specific neighborhood or NYC real estate in general, feel free to contact me using the form below. I’m always happy to help!
Credit: Nikki Thomas 
Nikki in NYC 