Real Estate BY ANGELA MATUA SIZZLING SPACES Condo prices in Astoria and LIC don’t show signs of decreasing anytime soon, report says Prices for condominiums in Astoria and Long Island City have seen a steady increase and will not be plateauing anytime soon. Arlinda Dine, executive director of Marketing at Modern Spaces, serves as the primary researcher for The Orange Report, a market report highlighting trends in those neighborhood for the third quarter of this year. She found some interesting shifts in the local market. Single people made up more than half of condo purchases in Long Island City from July through Sept. 2016, which marks a shift from the threebedroom units that dominated purchases made in the second quarter. Studio and one-bedroom units made up 51 percent of closings, up from 29 percent of closings from April through June. During the second quarter, two- and three-bedroom units made up 62 percent of closings. But Dine said this trend is cyclical and occurred mostly because a lot of studio and one-bedroom condos were available during quarter three. “There’s nothing special or different happening there,” Dine said. “If you look at what’s in contract to sell during the fourth quarter, there’s so many threebedrooms in the next quarter that it’s going to shift back. It’s a scheduling thing a lot of the time.” The average price per square foot of condos in Long Island City rose 6 percent since the same time last year, according to the report. The average price per foot on the market is $1,303 with some exceptions like The View Condominiums at 46-30 Center Blvd. with a price of $2,651 per square foot. Dine said the demand for condos in Long Island City will keep growing as residents grow up, have children and shift from living in rentals to condos. She sees rental prices in the neighborhood stabilizing soon as there are about 20,000 rentals coming to market in the near future. There was no change in rental price for walk-ups or elevator rentals from quarter two to quarter three. The average price for luxury rentals decreased from $3,989 last quarter to $3,088 in the third quarter. In Astoria, the desire for condos keeps growing, Dine said. The Marx, a new condo building in Astoria, marks a shift in how much people are willing to pay for condos in the neighborhood. Modern Spaces sold 33 units in six weeks. The highest a tenant paid for a unit was $1,323 per square foot. The average price per square foot for condos in Astoria is $869. “Now that those units at The Marx are closing the numbers for price per square foot are significantly going up,” Dine said. “So the next report is going to see an even bigger change.” Rental prices have seen a slight increase. Since quarter three last year, rental prices have increased 5 percent, from $2,692 to $2,820.
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