Home sales in Brooklyn and Queens are reaching a new high

Brooklyn and Queens real estate markets are setting new records. The number of homes sold in the two boroughs soared in the first three months of 2022 despite the low listing inventory and rising prices. 

The first quarter of 2022 saw 3,666 home sales in Brooklyn, more than any quarter since 2006, the new market report from Miller Samuel Inc. suggests. The real estate appraisal firm found that home sales in Brooklyn jumped nearly 30 percent compared to the previous year and over 45 percent from pre-pandemic levels. 

Growing sales and low housing inventory led to the surge in home prices. The median sales price in Brooklyn has gone up 5.4 percent year-over-year and rose to a record $948,500. The market share of homes sold above $1 million has also increased. 

Similar trends are happening in Queens. There were 4,000 home sales in the borough in the first quarter of 2022. The median sales price went up almost 9 percent and reached $718,444. The number of home sales in Queens remains 31.8 percent above the pre-pandemic levels. 

However, the listing inventory began to decline. The supply fell 12.6 percent from last year to 4,914 homes available on the sales market. Nonetheless, Queens still offered more homes for sale in the first three months of 2022 than the borough did during the same period in 2020.

The listing inventory in Brooklyn grew 1 percent from last year and 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021. The number of homes for sale in Brooklyn reached 2,913, nearly 300 more than in the first quarter of 2020. 

“One of the reasons why sales are up is because inventory has not collapsed,” the author of the report, Jonathan Miller, told The Real Deal. “That’s the unified characteristic of the suburb of the city, in sharp contrast to the center for the suburban markets.”

Resources:

“Home sales climb to 15-year highs in Brooklyn and Queens,” by Sasha Jones (The Real Deal, 2022)

“Elliman Report: Brooklyn Sales 1Q 2022,” by Miller Samuel Inc. (Douglas Elliman, 2022)

“Elliman Report: Queens Sales 1Q 2022,” by Miller Samuel Inc. (Douglas Elliman, 2022)

“Elliman Report: Brooklyn Sales 1Q 2020,”by Miller Samuel Inc. (Douglas Elliman, 2020)

“Elliman Report: Queens Sales 1Q 2020,”by Miller Samuel Inc. (Douglas Elliman, 2020)