Williamsburg is Dead...

Williamsburg is certainly not dead and in fact is past the gentrification tipping point. Rufus you are incorrect there has not beenm a spike in crime. The articles in Curbed are more about bed-stuy than South Williamsburg and SOUTH williamsburg has always been different from North near the Bedford stop on the L. Broker girl clearly has no idea what shes talking about. The developments on the water are priced high because (a) they are on the water with fantastic views of Manhattan (duh), (b) they are largely incomplete and therefore uncertainty and (gasp) hope of developers takes a while to come down so prices will be lower once they are completed in 1.5 to 2 years if things are still as they are (credit crunch, job losses, etc) but otherwise because they might not need to push them down, why would they and (c) because those particular properties have the best finishes, materials and amenities (generally).

Rufus has a lot of free time and bashes all parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and Broker girl has no clue.

If you've ever spent quality time out there it becomes clear that it has a fun vibe and that there is plenty to do AND, in many ways, it is more convenient commuting wise than many parts of the LES and even oarts of the UES, at least for me (though I do work in midtown on the west side).

Cheetah779902, northern williamsburg has good views of manhattan? LOL! i guess if you enjoy looking over at those "beautiful" housing projects in lower east side, then yeah, the views are great.

williamsburg is a joke. it always has and always will be. it's full of freaks, geeks, and weirdos.

Rufus,
Maybe the next time I'm looking over at those housing projects, I can wave to you.
Which window is yours?

> it's full of freaks, geeks, and weirdos.

Rufus Translation = anyone not wearing dockers and baseball caps, making less then $75k...

Great views of midtown including Empire State building, Chrysler Building, Metlife top, all other midtown, including Citicorp and others. Rufus, do you even think or read before you write anything?

So professionals and hipsters are all freaks, geeks and weirdos?

Believe me, there are a lot of people in Williamsburg working hard and making money and those who have bought at new devs and will buy at the new devs are making more than Rufus.

Cheetah, the professionals living in williamsburg are mainly the back office people at financial firms and paralegals. people with money live in manhattan, not some hideous neighborhood in brooklyn.

Great views of Manhattan is like looking through the window of a restaurant and wishing you were rich enough to eat there.

Must be great looking in through the outside....

rufus, petrfitz, Richard_Inya,

It's real simple - you don't like? Stay the hell out. WB will be better for it. The real question is, why do you devote so much time to this thread? The fact that you do says quite a lot.

living in Williamsburg and looking longing into Manhattan is like wanting to drive a Mercedes but buying a Hyundai.

And living on the Lower East side is like buying one of the shitty low end Mercedes and then trying to align yourself with the guy who bought the $122k one.

It might have the logo, but you're still basically driving a Hyundai.

petrfitz knows this since he has a chauffer-driven Prius.

Is it also like marrying an heiress that's not really Ivanka Trump? Or marrying an actress that's not really Halle Berry, petrfitz? Or is it like living close to Celine Dion in Vegas and hearing her helicopter?

petrfitz is obviously quite an expert on this. LOL!

Article of interest below from therealdeal

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Brooklyn home sales prices down, new construction helps prop up sales activity

Streeteasy's Sofia Kim
By Sara Polsky

Home prices in Brooklyn fell in the third quarter compared to a quarter earlier and year-over-year, according to a Brooklyn market report released by Prudential Douglas Elliman today. While sales slowed between third-quarter 2007 and third-quarter 2008, they increased between the second and third quarters this year.

The median sales price of a Brooklyn apartment was $510,000 in the third quarter, a 2.9 percent drop from the previous quarter and a 5.6 percent decrease from third-quarter 2007, the third-quarter report, prepared by Miller Samuel, shows.

The number of sales in the borough, the report found, plummeted 38.2 percent between third-quarter 2007 and third-quarter 2008. But the number of sales increased 13.1 percent between the second and third quarters this year, largely due to closings on new developments, said appraiser Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.

Third-quarter trends matched those seen in the second quarter, Miller said.

“In the second-quarter report, a lot of sales figures were showing similar declines. The reason for the consistency is still the contraction of credit. The availability of financing continues to play an important role in restraining the flow of sales activity in Brooklyn, not unlike anywhere else."

Home prices and sales figures varied widely throughout the borough. The median sales price increased only in North Brooklyn, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint. But that market, which Miller calls "the product of new development," accounted for only about eight percent of the borough’s sales in the third quarter.

The East Brooklyn market, covering Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and East New York, tumbled a sizable 20 percent in median sales price since the third quarter of 2007. Miller attributed the slump to foreclosures and speculative development.

Sofia Kim, vice president of research at Streeteasy, said the data that Streeteasy has gathered is similar to that found in the Miller Samuel report.

"I would agree with the trend that prices have decreased," Kim said. Streeteasy tracks data on the Brooklyn market and hopes to release its first Brooklyn market report next quarter.

Meanwhile, the Corcoran Group’s third-quarter Brooklyn report released yesterday in partnership with PropertyShark listed a higher median sales price and a shallower decline in sales. Corcoran determined that the median apartment price in Brooklyn increased 8 percent from $623,000 last year and that sales in the borough decreased 18 percent over the past year.

Richard_Inya
5 days ago
ignore this person
report abuse Williamsburg is the Trenton of New York.

Trenton makes, the world takes

So in the past 8 weeks, how've we done in Williamsburg?

see curbed article from monday:

Comment of the Day —"Actually not all NYC neighborhoods have a glut. Some areas like Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, and Boreum Hill have inventory at historically low levels right now. Not much new construction in those areas. It's areas like Williamsburg which are going to really suffer. Areas where there are 10,000 new units on or coming to the market. It's very similar to what happened in Miami and Las Vegas. If you bought in Williamsburg you WILL be waiting till 2015 to break even. No doubt about it." [Where's the Magic? Greenpoint's Viridian Likely to Go Rental]

10,000 units available and on top of a gang infested toxic waste dump! This neighborhood is hot - hot like in radioactive and contaminated.

WillyB is not dead. Now is the time to buy in WillyB and I'm going to The Edge as we speak LOL.

WillyB is not dead, the toxic waste makes it undead. its like the Toxic avenger!

petrfitz, you need to resort to anonymous comments from Curbed to make your points? And you call them "article[s]"? Ha!

i heard the toxicity is starting to creep into the LES!

only when the williamsburg hipster wannbes cross the bridge and pretend to be Manhattanites.

"i heard the toxicity is starting to creep into the LES!"

I think it's been emanting for some time from some mysterious address on Pitt or Ridge St.