Brooklyn, NY – With luxury condos soaring all over the borough, Brooklynites might have reason to expect a massive invasion from well-heeled neighbors in Manhattan.
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But figures show that borough residents have led the push to snap up those new homes – a trend even the developers did not expect.
I was surprised, as were most of us. We were mistaken," said Asher Abehsera of Two Trees Real Estate, who handled sales and marketing for 110 Livingston – the Board of Education's stately former headquarters.
Prices have been raised seven times since the initial offering in September, Abehsera said.
About 58% of buyers were from Brooklyn, and 90% of the units have been sold.
The trend further south in the borough may be due to the fact that only a fixed number of Manhattanites are willing to cross the river, but the number of available condo units has soared, said Jonathan Miller of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
Miller thinks developers "didn't anticipate the competition that's occurring in Brooklyn."
At 1 Brooklyn Bridge Park, which went on sale in May, 56% of prospective buyers were Brooklynites, with nearly a quarter of the 440 units sold.
Those Brooklyn buyers, however, may be recent transplants from Manhattan.
There are a lot of people originally from Manhattan who came to Brooklyn to test the waters, love it and now they want to stay," said Highlyann Krasnow of the Developers Group. [Daily News]