Real estate slump sets Brooklyn back
Borough’s teetering neighborhoods bear brunt of decline
by amy zimmer / metro new york

BROOKLYN. A rise in foreclosures and gloom about the economy could stop up-and-coming Brooklyn neighborhoods in their tracks. As the real estate market cools, fears grow that professionals will lose interest in such areas as Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Brownsville.
“When there’s a pullback in the marketplace, the ‘newer’ neighborhoods are often harder hit,” said Frank Percesepe, Brooklyn VP for Corcoran.
These neighborhoods are among the top 10 Brooklyn areas with foreclosures, according to a 2006 list from NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
“There definitely is concern out there that this issue is going to lead to an unraveling of the progress we made improving the quality-of-life over the last decade or so,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, co-director of the Center. “One would probably predict the connection between foreclosure rates and a decline in property value,” she added. “It’s not clear which direction the causal arrow is going.”
The Center found foreclosure proceedings had started for 885 Bed-Stuy homes last year, up from 422 in 2004. A new Corcoran report shows average home prices dropped 10 percent over the last three months and 2 percent over the year.
Sean Cozier, 30, a multimedia developer, bought a Bed-Stuy brownstone with two friends two and a half years ago because it was “an up-and-coming” neighborhood.
Though it hasn’t come up as quickly as he had hoped — there aren’t restaurants and FreshDirect doesn’t deliver to his block on Madison Street — Cozier says 50 percent of his block is now rented by young professionals.
Hearing about the dip in home prices, Cozier isn’t incredibly worried. “I suspect people would come in and snatch them up as investors and rent them out,” he said.
Realtor: Upside is lower prices
Malika Cumbie, a broker at Seymour Ward Estates, said homes that once took three months to sell are now taking six to eight months, but she wasn’t worried. “They’re building skyscrapers all over Brooklyn,” she said. “People want brownstones. Compared to last year, there’s been a drop in prices. You can get a good deal now.”