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New Williamsburg Condo Prices Plummeted This Spring, Report Says

 The Edge condos are among the more expensive "prime" North Williamsburg developments.
The Edge condos are among the more expensive "prime" North Williamsburg developments.
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DNAinfo/Meredith Hoffman

WILLIAMSBURG — Home buyers this spring found far better deals than at the end of the year — with median sales prices on new Williamsburg condos plummeting by a third since the end of 2012.

Overall, the neighborhood's median sales prices have dropped from an all-time high of nearly $900,000 at the end of 2012 to slightly more than $600,000 this spring, a new report by MNS Real Estate shows.

In the second quarter of 2013, the neighborhood's median prices for new developments dropped 22 percent overall, with a 19 percent decrease in price per square foot — from nearly $900 to just $718, the lowest median price since 2011, the report shows.

The surprising trend in the booming real estate territory was prompted by an increase in building outside of North Williamsburg, MNS CEO Andrew Barrocas said.

"There's been more condo development outside North Williamsburg," said Barrocas, noting that the majority of new condos on the market were in less-expensive South and East Williamsburg.

The report also notes that "all three-bedroom units sold...were located outside the 'North' Williamsburg market, where prices are drastically higher."

Those three-bedroom units in South and East Williamsburg had a median sales price of just $314 per square foot, compared with a median price of $914 per square foot for new developments in North Williamsburg, the report explains.

The dramatic difference between sales prices in South and East Williamsburg from North Williamsburg echoes even more stark rent contrasts, with average rents $1,600 more in North than in South Williamsburg, a MNS graphic showed earlier this year.

The borough overall saw a dramatic increase in condos that hit the market this spring, with an 85-percent jump in sales transactions from the winter. But Barrocas said there were "still not a lot of new condos going up anywhere" in Brooklyn.

"Everything you see is rentals," he said of most construction on buildings in North Brooklyn and elsewhere in the borough. "It still makes more sense [for owners] to rent than to sell."