(Photo: Dave King/Getty Images)
According to data compiled by Streeteasy.com, the number of transactions in East Harlem, Central Harlem, and Hamilton Heights is down 60 to 90 percent. Last year, the first quarter’s total was 136 new contracts; this year, it’s 32 contracts (as of March 18). In West Harlem this past quarter, not a single deal was struck. Other formerly edgy areas where prices rose sharply have fared somewhat better: Fort Greene and Manhattan Valley both saw 50 percent drops, and Clinton Hill and Hell’s Kitchen fell 60 percent. (The financial district is up 4.4 percent.) One Harlem agent took all her listings off the market because, she says, “nobody’s buying.”
Why is Harlem hit so badly? Theories abound, none of them telling the whole story. Yes, buyers are skittish, and mortgage approvals don’t come easy, but both rationales fail to fully explain the thudding drop. Prudential Douglas Elliman senior vice-president and Harlemite Todd Stevens thinks the postponement of projects that would have cemented Harlem’s real-estate values—such as the redevelopment of 125th Street—has hurt momentum. Another broker blames “small-time developers” who rushed to build high-priced condos, simultaneously driving away buyers and glutting the high end of the market. Many new apartments are two-bedrooms or larger, notes Jenny Schuetz of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning, and right now studios and one-bedrooms are trading best. Retail establishments with high-rent leases are also faltering, and a lack of services has, for many years, been one of the things that keep affluent buyers wary of Harlem. “[You’d] see a store open and you’d cross your fingers it stays open,” says K.S., a screenwriter who moved to Harlem during the past few years. For what it’s worth, she says she’s staying put.
Read the whole story: NYMag
HBB
April 1, 2009
Oh, but it’s all just political. Contrary to what many folks think, people who work at Walmart have HOMES! Where I’m from, there’s 5 super walmarts for a city population 500K. Most of the people who work there own homes and have normal lives. But you see, those folks get paid decent because they can do basic math. Many people here can’t even count from 1-10, but they wanna get paid well. For example, many times at Target, I get more change than what I paid. Hey, if you gonna give it to me, I’m gonna keep it.
HBB
April 1, 2009
NYC won’t let Wolly World in. The damn unions and folks who can’t really get a job paying more than minimum wage but wanna be paid $11/hr to work at walmart. Many college grads get paid that nowadays. Poor but picky!
al
April 1, 2009
Regarding the lot at 125th and Lenox, just look a little further ad you will see Loft 124, luxury condo described as built for rock stars, home to those gentrifying and invested in Harlem. Look behind and you will see Chez Lucienne French bistro, always busy with those gentrifying and invested in Harlem. Look south and you will see the Mount Morris Park district, some of the cities most beautiful brownstone blocks, sold for millions, renovated where cost is no object, home to those gentrifying and invested in Harlem. Methinks Harlem132nd cherry picks his examples.
Pete
April 1, 2009
iloveharlem,
I hope you’ll forgive me for finding it more than a little amusing that you’re co-signing Humme’s criticism of the real estate mentality purportedly present on this and other blogs, while also identifying an empty lot as “the best space in Harlem.”
Shouldn’t “the best space in Harlem” function as a pillar of community activity, or at least be something that exists?
iloveharlem
March 31, 2009
The question is why hasn’t a “Walmart” taken it by now? It’s big enough for a bookstore or a Macys. There are Macys in the outer boroughs smaller than that lot. Borders, Barnes & Nobles for the students, LOL.
HBB
March 31, 2009
All they have to do is give the 125th and Lenox spot to Walmart and soon every real estate bitch will follow, including Corcoran. But, folks here want everything to be union. Look, if you don’t wanna work for minimum wage don’t. There are plenty of people who will.
But then again, the size of the spot is awkward. Ain’t big enough, ain’t small enough.
iloveharlem
March 31, 2009
Ditto Humme. And time will tell just like it always does. First Harlem was supposed to be the new UWS, now it going to be the next Greenwich Village with the students. Let’s wait and see. And 123 has got a point about 125th & Lenox though. That empty space is saying a whole lot. That’s the best space in Harlem.
Humme
March 31, 2009
The posts about Harlem real estate are all anyone cares about. Does this neighborhood represent anything more than a greedy developer’s wet dream to you people? There are entirely too many blogs that fixate on this element of life, and none that illuminate what it’s like to really LIVE in Harlem. I am more than the high rise sprouting up across the street.
Pete
March 31, 2009
Still wondering what is his dog in this fight…
The 8:49am comment is also remarkable for its portrayal of the actions of “insider financiers” as somehow taking place in a vacuum, as if the worst financial crisis in the better part of a century wasn’t a factor, or rather *the* factor.
These “insiders” didn’t thoughtfully examine the evidence and make a rational decision to leave Harlem, having concluded that there is insufficient long-term value there. They lost all financing for most any project, nearly overnight. As in, no money. At all. So what we’re seeing is the epitome of short-term decision making, forced by the collapse of the credit markets.
anon
March 31, 2009
who else thinks that “Harlem132nd” is “getridoftheprojects” coming back from the dead?
LGP
March 31, 2009
Thank you harlemite. Some positivity is what we can use right now.
Flavorific
March 31, 2009
“Never” see a moving van at the projects. Right! Not sure which projects are in your neck of the ‘hood but I see them over here along with the remnants of discarded furniture and trash bags filled with clothes and toys. Even at $100 a month for rent people default and I believe there is a drug law still in effect that drug dealers subject their whole families to eviction if convicted. Not sure how often it is enforced. That would be to assume that everyone that lives in the projects is either criminal, lazy, or both. Not necessarily the case. This is what makes Harlem what it is…the complexities.
harlemite
March 31, 2009
Is the ranter that insane preacher who wishes Harlem be destroyed so it can be build back up?
Lots of NY neighborhoods are hurting. Prices are dropping. But guess what? Harlem ain’t going under. City College and Columbia University are building the largest expansions of research and science facilities on the East Coast. More and more students are choosing City College because of low tuition. Harlem will become more and more a student hang out. More CCNY Professors are moving in. Especially when City College expands their on-campus housing for graduate students and faculty.
This is all good for the community. Stable jobs in a time of need. As for empty lots – those are disappearing. I count 4 in all of Hamilton Heights the other day – ONLY 4.
Positive thinking and volunteering to keep your neighborhood safe and clean will help Harlem keep growing.
Harlem132nd
March 31, 2009
>Harlem take a hit and hopefully bring down the prices to levels where people will buy.
_
LOL. 125th St. & Lenox. There is no more “prime” and “definitive” location in Harlem. Actions speak louder than words folks and there is a reason that giant lot sits, undeveloped. That hurts and damages Harlem. That’s modern day “warehousing”. Has it been 1.5 years now? That’s a “metric”, that lot is “harbinger”, that lot is an “indicator” of how viable Harlem is to the real movers and shakers, big picture long term.
You can’t spin, explain, rationalize, or diminish this glaring empty lot with no real plans, just rumor. Action, where is the action by those with the most to gain? That’s the problem. You see a block South Vornado scapped Harlem plans, right? Big time developers like Vornado scrapping plans on Harlem is a major major “thumb’s down” vote of confidence on Harlem long term. Insiders like Vornado don’t sleep on emerging markets and profits to be gained.
The whole landscape of Harlem post 2000 was designed for non-Harlemites to relocate in Harlem. The only displaced would be the non-section 8, non-public housing people, that crowd has nothing to fear, they are not liable to being priced out, you never see a moving van at a public housing complex with THOUSANDS of apts (where it’s a weekly thing in a market rate complex of just 200 units).
The disconnect is profound, none of it adds up, you have to suspend your knowledge of economics buy into it and believe those claiming Harlem has not peaked (long term) in terms of values and prices.
That corner of 125th and Lenox says it all. It says “uncertainty”, it says no one is willing to put their skin in the game to that level and magnitude to do something with that prime location.
Harlem ambition got too far ahead of itself folks. Corcoran and Warbug’s actions, not their talk, their actions say it all – folding up shop, cutting and running on Harlem.
Harlem prices: At $800+/SQ’ Harlem is competing with Lower Manhattand AND Brooklyn – to attract the non-Harlemite….. and that’s is a metric, an equation, a factor Harlem developers DID NOT plan on 2, and 3 years ago when their plans were hatched and initially financed.
Talk is so cheap, it’s trifling – as is the mid-directed words of many claiming all in Harlem is just great. Diversion, what they don’t want you to focus on. Anyone here have an extensive portfolio? Anyone here insiders have an edge and don’t sleep on that? Real estate’s the same thing. One of the biggest insiders that controls ALL the politicians, Vornado pulled the plug and packed up on Harlem. If this was a stock, and you saw the insiders that control the game act, you too would follow their lead.
The key? (1) Focus on 125th and Lenox and monitor how long it remains an empty lot with no one wanting to put their skin in the game. However don’t hold your breath, the decision makers at Corcoran and Warbug know more than you. Think about it, who are the biggest insiders on Manhattan real estate, big picture? Can you even name bigger insiders than Corcoran, Warburg, and Vornado? The thing they have in common? Pulled the plug on Harlem, closed shop, etc. Sorry, when the insiders with the most to gain act – don’t think you have more insight and knowledge. Now can I get real? These insiders are reacting to the prospect going forward to who they are appealing to, the money – the money makers, the profit centers. They basically saying those with money and options are not going to be thinking “Harlem” for anything. The insiders chase a market, a profile.
If you know nothing about real estate, watch the big fish. Watch the financers. Their actions speak louder than anyone’s words. Who knows, maybe by 2010 Bobby’s Music House can afford to rent a small space on 125th.
West Harlem Rocks
March 31, 2009
You might want to double check that Langston reference.
bradhurst living
March 31, 2009
Harlem132nd posts the same rant every time this story surfaces but usually under an anonymous posting. Yes, overheated prices need to come down and likely we’ll see more rentals in the neighborhood. But things he/she never brings up – Columbia expansion will happen regardless of economy – maybe at a slower pace but it’s happening. Langston on 145th sold all of their units and they weren’t subsidized housing The economy is crappy in all parts of the 5 boroughs and so emerging nabes like Harlem take a hit and hopefully bring down the prices to levels where people will buy.
Pete
March 30, 2009
Harlem132nd,
What exactly is your dog in this fight?
Harlem132nd
March 30, 2009
Just wait, it’s going to get much much worse. Most of the new construction coming on line was conjured in a time when there were low bar / barriers to entry in securing a mortgage, even in fringe nabes (lacking core anchor amenities financers want and require). The rug’s been pulled on the “game”, that’s all. Very few Harlemite renters can obtain a mortgage today for Harlem prices at $800+/sq’. The real estate industrial complex model is designed on non-current-Harlemites moving to Harlem – and that….now is a very tall order when Harlem prices per square foot are on par with numerous other parts of Manhattan. New Harlem inventory competes with inventory in lower Manhattan, and that is a tough sell.
Never forget, the Harlem apt market has never been established at all – first wave of new inventory (Renaissancde Bldg, Rosa Parks, Tubman, that stuff on Madison between 116-118th, et.,…all Lottery driven apts laced with incentives and false metrics, NOT and OPEN AND FREE MARKET. Harlem new inventory was rigged and I know people that paid $12,000 for the share right to a 3 bedroom apt Coop at the Renaissance Bldg on 116th and Lenox (when it opened). Even back then…that was basically next to NOTHING. The effort to “jump start” Harlem apt values / price points is based on nothing real or of substance. The first wave buyers flipped and made a killing ($$$), many bldgs employed flip taxes to stop this. The point? Want an apt in Harlem? Buy it from a first generation buyer who bought in for a song or next to nothing, they have very little skin in the game. They’ll take a very low offer…..why? Their entry point was ridiculous.
Today, claiming and asserting Harlem apt condo values at $800+ is silly, has no legacy, nothing substantiating it other than the real estate industrial complex insistencing it’s “so”.
If you’re paying attening, and can wake up and smell the coffee, check the density of Harlem, the demographics, the people with locked in place secured housing via sec 8 and public housing – on the corner of 129th & Lenox
http://curbed.com/marketplace/properties/479
$870K to move in a nabe where the average household income is $32K/year, the persn age age 31, who would invest in poverty on a NYC scale? That density, those people are not going anywhere. They are anchored there thanks to social welfare programs.
Sooner or later……people with means and ability to buy….come to their senses. I’m Black, and would NEVER EVER spend $50OK or $1M on property in Harlem today. Most all Blacks I know that are actually from Harlem that can secure a mortgage at this level indeed did so, and bought, however bought houses in Long Island and New Jersey, etc.
The who Manhattan real estate landscape is forever changed in many ways for many reasons. The uncertainty swirling on Harlem prices and values is off the charts, enormous. There will be apts in Harlem that sit unsold for years (there already are apts that have 1 year notched….sitting). It’s going to be very very ugly come ’10 & ’11. NYC has too many problems going forward and Harlem will be the last area to recover – most say we’re in a 4 year downward trend….
Harlem needed low bar mortgages and lower Manhattan to be out of reach for a sector of NYers, Harlem needed the shinnanigans of the real estate industry. Many refuse to see Harlem going forward long term. However Corcorand and Warbug will not be accused of wearing rose colored glasses and drinking the kool-aid on Harlem, the fact that they both closed on shop on Harlem kind of says it all, and should, to even the most bullish on Harlem long.