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WHAT A DIFFERENCE a few weeks can make. Early this year, a 120-unit condo conversion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, known as Warehouse 11 stood on the verge of foreclosure. Today, now that the developers have come to terms with their lenders - and cut asking prices by as much as 35% - nearly three-fourths of the units have been sold, and the rest are going fast.
"We are seeing a lot of buyers," says David Maundrell, president of Aptsandlofts.com which is handling sales at Warehouse 11.
All across the city, homebuyers are emerging from a yearlong hibernation, lured back into the market for new condos by price cuts of up to 40% and by a growing sense that prices are now at or near the bottom. Low mortgage rates and the abundance of shiny new condos with marble counters, Viking appliances and striking views are also helping.
During the first quarter, nearly 460 deals in Manhattan were either closed or in contract. That's up 181% from the depressed year-earlier period, and the highest level since the second quarter of 2008, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, a brokerage that specializes in new developments.
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