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If you’ve been thinking about making the move to Williamsburg, you might want to start looking at apartments… like, now.
After Thursday’s announcement that the L train will likely not shutdown, real estate prices in North Brooklyn are expected to spike in the coming weeks, according to StreetEasy Senior Economist Grant Long.
“There’s a small chance landlords will still be willing to cut deals,” Long said.
In a press conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an alternate rehabilitation plan for the Canarsie Tunnel, which would avert a 15-month full shutdown that left some Brooklynites fleeing the area.
Since the April 2016 shutdown announcement, rents in North Brooklyn dropped 1.5 percent, while rents in the entire borough are up 3.3 percent, according to StreetEasy.
Real estate inventory in North Brooklyn was also 96 percent higher in Q4 2018 than one year earlier. So while renters are less likely to strike the deal they would’ve prior to Thursday’s announcement, the amount of inventory in the area may still encourage low prices. But be weary of too good to be true listings.
“A lot of landlords might leave old listings up to get interest,” Long said. “But as a lot of people start to shift patterns and start looking at Williamsburg, we’re going to have price deals going away.”
StreetEasy also found that had rents remained the same as in April 2016, renters would have paid an additional $6.4 million. And had North Brooklyn rents increased at the rate of the entire borough, renters would have paid an additional $26.5 million.