By Dennis Holt

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

 

BROOKLYN — More than $1 billion was spent in the first quarter of this year buying and selling residences in Brooklyn, according to a report published by Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller.
 

A common theme in several other reports about the first quarter of residential  sales is that the “housing market is currently characterized as stable.” Traditional market trends are returning, they say.
 

The Prudential report notes, for example, that “housing prices slipped from year-ago levels, largely due to the increased market share of lower-priced co-op sales.” Also, new development sales in the first quarter were in line with the four-year average.
 

Looking at the basic market it can be seen that sales of 1-to-3-family homes came in at $584 million, condo sales at about $315 million and co-op sales at about $121 million.

There were a total of 1,807 sales, according to Prudential — 543 condos, 368 co-ops and 896 1-to-3-family houses. New development condo sales outpaced re-sales and were priced higher than re-sales. These trends are expected to continue.
 

The townhouse market was spurred partly by two $10-million-plus sales in Brooklyn Heights and a very strong market in Park Slope in the $2-to-$4-million range.

Area patterns continued. Brooklyn south (dominated by 1-to-3-family homes) led that market at about $443 million, followed by the northwest and brownstone areas, with Brooklyn east coming in third and Williamsburg-Greenpoint fourth.
 

The planned housing development in the latter will probably move it into third place in the next two years, according to the report, but Downtown Brooklyn building will continue at a heavy pace.

 

In contrast to the above, a Corcoran Group report focused on the traditional brownstone communities, plus DUMBO, Red Hook and Gowanus.
 

Corcoran produces its data using maps to locate sales. In the first quarter there were 239 sales, but these 239 sales represent more than 239 housing units. For example, in Williamsburg-Greenpoint there were 53 different transactions, but at least 10 of them involved three or more residential units.  Most sales were in Williamsburg.
 

Williamsburg-Greenpoint had the highest price for co-ops, third highest for condos and third highest for townhouses.
 

Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, DUMBO and Downtown Brooklyn had 41 sales with the highest prices for townhouses and condos. The average price for townhouses was influenced by two $10 million townhouse sales in that period.
 

The largest number of sales — 72 — took place in Park Slope and Gowanus with most in Park Slope. This area had the second highest townhouse average sales price of the five groupings.
 

The second highest number of sales was in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights with 56 (Prospect Heights had the most with 25). This grouping had the lowest average price for co-ops, condos and townhouses.
 

The grouping with the lowest number of sales, at 17, was Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. According to this report, there were no sales in Red Hook at all. This grouping had the second highest prices for co-ops and condos.