The hardest hit boroughs are Queens and Staten Island. Queens Community Board 12 (Jamaica, South Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans) were hardest hit, claiming the top three zip codes by number of new foreclosures for the quarter: 11434, 11433-2, and 11412-13.(PropertyShark.com Foreclosures Report First Quarter 2008) “The weakness in Queens started earlier than in Brooklyn or Manhattan,” according to Jonathan Miller, chief executive of the real estate consultancy firm Miller Samuel Inc. The borough has been leading the city in foreclosures this year.
For the first quarter of 2008, Queens had 2,704 foreclosure filings, a 41.4% increase in the number of foreclosure filings from last year, while Staten Island had 737 foreclosures a startling increase of 101%. (www.RealtyTrac.com) First time foreclosure auctions in these boroughs have also increased drastically; in Queens they are up 59% and in Staten Island, 411%.Queens had the highest rate of home foreclosures in New York City over the past year, averaging more than 150 foreclosures a month. Only in September 2008 did the Queens foreclosures rate dip below the rate in Staten Island (www.workers.org).
Queens’s average sales price, a figure that includes the most and least expensive pur-chases, fell by 8.8% to $436,575 for the quarter, compared with $478,752 for the same period of 2007. (
www.crainsnewyorkbusiness.com).This figure indicates the net effects of the foreclosure crisis on the city as a whole has yet to be seen.
Two sections of Queens, the Northwest and Rockaway markets, fared better than the rest of the borough. For the quarter, the median sales prices of all property types in Northwest Queens fell by 3.3% to $625,195, compared with the same quarter of the previous year.The Rockaway area held its ground for the most part. The median sales prices, $465,132,rose 0.8% from the same time last year. (www.crainsnewyorkbusiness.com)