Thursday, March 16, 2006

The Corcoran Report

In yesterday's paper, I got a copy of the snazzy Year End 2005 Corcoran Report, so of course I have to share!

From the introductory remarks by Pamela Liebman, CEO:
"Part of what drove the 2004 market was short supply coupled with intense demand. By mid-year 2005, that imbalance began to be corrected as developers brought more product to the market to meet the demand and an increasing number of homeowners looked to trade their properties. By the end of the year, the increased supply was giving buyers more choices and took some of the exuberance out of the asking prices, although inventory levels still have not returned to their pre-2002 levels. Much was made of the Third Quarter's lower prices and slower activity by the media, but the second half of the year is typically less busy and the year's gains over 2004 were far from jeopardized. The Fourth Quarter saw strong sales and we are noticing that the 2006 season is heating up in the First Quarter as year-end bonuses come into play."
The usual slippery blah-blah-blah.

Manhattan: co-ops up 23%, condos up 25% in average sale price.
Those of you who live outside NYC will love this stat: the average price of a studio condo in Manhattan was $499k in 2005. Even the median was $450k. (Co-ops were quite a bit less, $345k/$335k)
The average price per square foot of a condo in Manhattan peaked at over $1,100 in Q2 '05, though it was down slightly by the end of the year. Co-ops peaked at somewhere around $860 in Q3 '05.
There are also a gazillion other stats and some interesting charts on absoption of inventory which I won't go into but you can see the report for yourself here.

As for Brooklyn, co-ops were up 18%, condos up 14% in average sale price.
They don't give any price per square foot numbers for Brooklyn. By neighborhoods, oddly enough studios in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill declined in price by 25%-- but I don't remember ever seeing that many studio listings in that area, so I wonder if a small sample is responsible for that trend.
In my 'hood, Park Slope, overall average sale price is up 18% for coops and 5% for condos. The average prices by size are:
Studio $222k
1 BR $388k
2 BR $633k
3 BR $866k

As for rents, they are flat overall on average, but up 5% in Park Slope. My current studio rent of $850 is well below the average of $1,300, which was up 13% for the year.
1 BR rent average: $1,859 (up 12%)
2 BR: $2,312 (up only 2%)
3 BR: $3,758 (up 17%)
This is a neighborhood where the median household income is $52,605. Very little additional math is needed to conclude that it is really f*ing expensive to live here.
But I still love New York.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

the median *family* income in my town in hudson cty nj is hovering around $26,000 annually, however, my apartment is currently worth $350,000 conservatively (1 BR, full service w/pool) and I make over $200K annually. Figures lie and liars figure. Welcome to the only (still) undervalued area in metro NYC--Hudson County, NJ (except JC and Hoboken). Of course, there are $35K per year folks at my work who live in trendier neighborhoods then me. But then "trendy" is another word for "clueless".

Anonymous said...

Just because you make $200k does't mean the median income is a lie. Half the people there make more than $26000 and half don't. You are in the half that does.

Anonymous said...

I did not mean to imply that the figures are false, although I point out that in my area its *family* median income, not *individual* median income. I meant to imply that the figures can often be skewed, particularly median figures, and also to point out the undervalue areas which still abound in these parts.