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Sellers lower expectations as growth in prices for Brooklyn, Manhattan slow down: Report – Metro US

Sellers lower expectations as growth in prices for Brooklyn, Manhattan slow down: Report

Sellers lower expectations as growth in prices for Brooklyn, Manhattan slow
Flickr/Steve Parker

Even as Brooklyn and Manhattan are continuing to see expensive real estate markets, one new report found that New Yorkers looking to sell their homes in those two boroughs are lowering their asking prices in order to make some money back.

Since the start of 2016, Manhattan and Brooklyn have begun to see a decline in the price growth for homes, according to a market report released by StreetEasy.

In Manhattan, median resale prices went up 3.8 percent from last year to $978,765 – making it the lowest annual growth since September 2012. For Brooklyn, the price grew 7.1 percent from last year to $545, 330, which shows a third month in a row of price growth slowing down.

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And although the growth in prices have started to take a slower pace, sellers so far have been able to get more of their initial asking price through showing “discipline” with price, according to the report.

“Manhattan and Brooklyn sellers are being more cautious with their pricing and perhaps a little less free-wheeling than they’ve been over the past few years,” said Alan Lightfeldt, StreetEasy data scientist. “In order to sell in this market, sellers need to lower their asking prices slightly to see a greater return with fewer price cuts.”

Based on the report’s data, the median sale-to-list price ratio in Manhattan so far this year has been 98.5 percent – meaning that sellers in the borough have gotten that percentage of the asking price back. This number is an increase from the 97.8 percent last year. As part of this the share of Manhattan listings which saw a price cut went down from 31.2 percent last year to 27.6 percent so far in 2016.

In Brooklyn, sellers received 98.3 percent of their initial asking prices, which went unchanged from the year before. Listings in this borough which experience price cuts also decline to 22.7 percent from 24.1 last year.

The report concluded with giving a 12-month outlook on sales prices, estimating them to continue slowing down across most areas in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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Although prices are expected to grow slowly in most of Brooklyn, the area known as “Brownstone Brooklyn” which includes neighborhoods such as Prospect Park and northwest Brooklyn, is expected to see negative growths with estimated – 0.6 percent and – 1.3 percent in the next year.

For Manhattan, median resale prices are expected to grow by 2.6 percent over the same time period with growth being led in upper Manhattan and followed by the upper West Side.

“While price growth is slackening, buyers still face an extremely competitive and expensive market, especially in areas like East Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan where pockets of relatively affordable options are attracting more buyers every day,” Lightfeldt said.