‘STUY’ IS THE LIMIT
Home prices soar
These days, the nastiest turf wars in BedfordStuyvesant involve multimilliondollar realestate deals.
The median price for homes in the hardscrabble Brooklyn neighborhood has skyrocketed in the past year — from $425,000 in the second quarter of 2013 to $630,000 this year, according to data from realestate site StreetEasy.
The boost comes as an influx of highend buyers — from celebrities to “Park Avenue princesses” — are ditching the price tags in Manhattan and flocking to the oncegritty outerborough nabe, best known to outsiders from Spike Lee’s 1989 racialtension drama, “Do the Right Thing.”
“BedStuy is the hottest neighborhood in Brooklyn,” said Ban Leow, of Halstead Property. “It’s really making a name for itself.”
The numbers tell a story of gentrification that would make the Brooklynborn Lee, a bitter foe of outsiders moving in, rage. The median asking price in BedStuy was $895,000 in June, 50 a percent hike over the same time last year. Flip sales are more dramatic: A sixbedroom home that sold for $1.2 million in February was flipped for $2.1 million this June.
The current BedStuy home sale record is the $2.25 million sale of 22 Arlington Place, which sold for $400,000 more than its $1.85 million asking price, even though it’s just 16 feet wide.
Leow is now about to list a 40footwide mansion at 247 Hancock St. for $6 million. A similarsized mansion would sell for up to $60 million in Manhattan, he said.
“There’s a new breed of Realtors bringing in buyers who are transplants from Manhattan, New Jersey and Connecticut,” Leow said. “They are inviting their friends over for backyard barbecues and, in an infectious way, the neighborhood has taken off.”
People are flocking to BedStuy even though its crimeplagued ays are not yet behind it. NYPD data show that the 79th and 81st precincts had 928 and 907 major crimes so far this year — among the worst numbers in the city.
The new residents include fashionistas who would never have been caught dead in Brooklyn a few years ago. A former Vogue editor and her restaurateur husband even sold their $3.5 million Park Avenue penthouse to move into a $1.8 million BedStuy mansion.
“Now, buyers are going to East New York,” said broker Kathleen Perkins of Douglas Elliman. “Anything to stay in New York City and not move to Jersey.”