Buyer’s Market in Brooklyn?

Posted By Lauren Kim On November 8, 2007 @ 8:00 am In Buying, Selling, New York

After reading yesterday’s news about the record levels of  home inventory, Developments started calling up real-estate agents for their take on various local markets. But when we dialed John Reinhardt at Fillmore Real Estate in Manhattan, we got a more personal story.

Mr. Reinhardt just cut about $100,000 off the asking price of his home, located in the Bergen Beach-neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mr. Reinhardt originally placed his house  on the market for $1 million. But after 60 days, he didn’t get any offers, he says. So, after he found a home he was interested in purchasing, he dropped his price and sold his house in three weeks.

Hardly a success story, we thought. But, Mr. Reinhardt insists that he got a fair deal on his home. Homeowners looking to sell should move beyond the dollar-amount they want, he says, and think instead of the opportunities that today’s housing market offers.

To wit: Mr. Reinhardt wound up buying a bigger home a block away for $200,000 below what it would have cost him two years ago, he says. With the inventory of homes for sale so high and plenty of choices out there, now is the time to buy, he adds.