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Cheerful Study Examines Insane Cost Of Housing In Brooklyn
By
Lauren Evans
Published Jan 7, 2014
Modified Jan 7, 2014
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By
Lauren Evans
Published Jan 7, 2014
Modified Jan 7, 2014
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We know a million times over how excruciatingly, head-clenchingly, teeth-grindingly expensive it is to live in Hip Brooklyn. (To say it's pandemic through the entire borough would be unfair—look, it's Kensington!) A new report commissioned by brokerage firm Aptsandlofts.com now allows us to peer into the unblinking eye of the tiger, the spleen of the hornet's nest, the hematoma of the hurricane and see just how drastically the cost of living in Hip Brooklyn has spiked since 2003.
The report will not surprise you, not because it's not jarring, but because your ability to process surprise was deadened long ago, right after you found yourself agreeing to pay $4.86 million for a Brooklyn Heights townhouse. (That was the average price in 2012, by the way. In 2013, the average fell to the eminently more reasonable $4.5 million.)
The study examines the shifts in cost over the 10 years between 2003 and 2013 in Williamsburg, DUMBO, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. It's a kicky looking thing splashed in bright colors and peppered with helpful sidebars highlighting "Conversions With The Most Action" and "Interesting Facts." Beneath that, though, it's fucking depressing. In Bed-Stuy, the average price of a townhouse in 2003 was $321,000, compared to a projected $600,000 in 2013—a change the study calls "an 87 percent improvement." An improvement for whom, exactly? Aptsandlofts.com, of course, which just purchased swank new digs on Malcolm X Boulevard.
Other "highlights" include a 66 percent increase in the price of BoCoCa co-ops (I implore you to say that out loud) and a 94 percent increase in the cost of Park Slope townhouses, but none are as galling as the price of Everything in Williamsburg, the former factory hamlet turned Urban Outfitters Theme Park. In 2003, a Williamsburg townhouse could be had for $378,000, mere pocket change compared to the $1.4 million you'll throw down for one now. The firm sold a feeble 21 apartments in 2003—by 2013, they'd sold 706.
Go ahead, read the whole thing below, and don't forget to print it out—the colorful pages double as excellent packing material for your move to Kensington!
Aptsandlofts.com - Brooklyn Ten Year Sales Study
Tagged
brooklyn
brooklyn real estate
gentrification
real estate
Lauren Evans
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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