The reason why people were coming to view the unit was the most interesting part about the process.
A sleek and modern one bedroom apartment in Williamsburg on Grand street, my sellers and I had agreed on a listing price of $700,000. It’s June 2020, the world is panicked amidst the Pandemic, and my clients, like so many New Yorkers, are wanting to flee the city for more space and nature.
They had bought the Williamsburg condo in 2016 for $660,000 — and buyers are wanting to urgently schedule showings at $700,000. But what I find weird is the story I hear a few times from interested parties — a good handful of which currently live in Manhattan.
Manhattanites say on three occasions that they want to move because they feel Manhattan — specifically, the Upper West Side — is now unsafe. That 72nd street on the Upper West Side, is dangerous.
We sold the condo for above asking price, $725,000, closing in August of that year. But the story that Manhattan was now dangerous was too much for me, a full time Brooklynite, to understand without viewing firsthand.
On a Monday in July, after a busy Sunday of showing the condo, I ride my bike from Bushwick to 72nd Street and Broadway, over the Williamsburg Bridge and up the West Side Highway. It feels like I’m going on some apocalyptic journey — I have barely left North Brooklyn since the Pandemic had hit and don’t want to take the subway.
But getting to the Upper West Side, I don’t feel like I am in harm’s way — at all. Yeah, it’s quiet — no one’s swarming out of the subway at the 72nd street 2/3 express stop, but I don’t feel like I’m in some sketchy situation.
I guess this sentiment that Manhattan was growing “unsafe” was felt by many people, but why? The sentiment seemed pretty ridiculous to me after my bike ride.
But then again: what does it matter, why people want to move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, when it comes to selling my Grand street listing? I was happy to have sold the condo in less than 45 days.