CNBC’S Mad Money host and frequent Squawk Box guest commentator, Jim Cramer is well known for his savvy insights, investing know-how and feverish financial stock rants. His latest hot tip: pump money into Brooklyn housing.
Cramer surprised fellow Squwak Box anchors Wednesday when he voiced his belief that the housing market in Brooklyn was the best poised to bounce back across the city. As the market slowly starts its uptick from the recession, Brooklyn will become one of the most valuable place for housing investors, Cramer claimed.
Calls to Cramer were not returned, but a quick look at last quarter house price indexes across the area does indeed seem to support the analyst’s predictions. Average price per square foot for Brooklyn was $328 at the end of the first quarter of 2012, a decrease of 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year, real estate web site Trulia.com reported. “The median sales price for homes in Brooklyn for Dec 11 to Feb 12 was $512,012 based on 1,443 home sales. Compared to the same period one year ago, the median home sales price increased 0.8 percent, or $4,012, and the number of home sales increased 2.4 percent,” it claims.
“There are currently 8,782 resale and new homes in Brooklyn on Trulia, including 498 open houses, as well as 4,584 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process,” the site reports.
The average listing price for homes for sale was $650,112 for the week ending Mar 21, which represents a decrease of 1.1 percent, or $7,162, compared to the prior week. The most popular neighborhoods in Brooklyn include Bedford – Stuyvesant and Park Slope, with average listing prices of $483,543 and $962,827.
Statistics conclude that Brooklyn is teeming with youngsters looking for bigger spaces at relatively cheaper prices, but recently the Brooklynite trend seems to be pushing prices in the other direction: Grand Theft Auto star Dan Houser, for example, purchased Truman Capote’s mansion – valued at $12.4 million – in Brooklyn Heights last week, The Observer reported. In an article published earlier this week, The Huffington Post also claimed that Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Mathew Broderick are reportedly hoping to combine two adjacent homes to construct a 7,000 square-foot mansion on State Street near Sidney Place.
Real estate websites such as trulia.com advertise current housing trends around the borough. For a listing of house prices per distrct in the area, visit their website.
Leave a Reply