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L Train Shutdown Sparks Williamsburg Condo Price Drop, Expert Says

By Gwynne Hogan | July 14, 2016 1:58pm
 The Oosten condos at 421 Kent Ave. in South Williamsburg features 216 units, including townhouses, and tons of outdoor space and amenities.
The Oosten condos at 421 Kent Ave. in South Williamsburg features 216 units, including townhouses, and tons of outdoor space and amenities.
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The Oosten

WILLIAMSBURG — While the number of sales of condominiums surged this year, the average sale price dropped significantly — which some experts attributed to fears about the L train shutdown, a new report found.

One hundred and twenty condos were sold between April and June, 43 percent more than the same period last year, according to the Real Estate Board of New York's quarterly findings publishing on Tuesday.

The report found that the average sale price dropped 13 percent — down to $937,000.

The decrease in prices goes against citywide numbers where condo prices continued to climb, surging 23 percent this quarter. Condo prices also went up by nine percent across Brooklyn.

One local real estate expert said buyer fears about the looming 2019 L train shutdown were felt in the real estate market almost instantaneously.

"Literally that day we saw a big change in traffic to our listings. Since then, people have now started to react to that and come to grips with that," said Lyon Porter, a real estate agent at Corcoran who focuses on sales in the northeast part of Williamsburg.

"A lot of people were taken aback and they really had to sit with that information," Porter said.

In the past few months, Porter's seen fewer offers for each individual listing, meaning that sellers have accepted lower offers they may never have considered months before. Though in the past two weeks he's noticed a resurgence.

"I've definitely seen a little bit more traffic. Not as much as we had before," he said. "We'll see where it's going."

The MTA needs to repair the Canarsie Tunnel which connects Manhattan and Brooklyn along the L train line and needs to fully shut down service between Manhattan and Brooklyn for 18 months or partially shut down service for three years.

Repair work will begin in 2019 and the MTA will announce by the end of summer whether to opt for a full or partial shutdown. Service along the L train in Brooklyn will remain mostly unaffected during the prolonged outage.