“There’s a lot of competition out…
By Tien-Shun Lee
Prices for homes in Queens have gone up by as much as 20 percent within the last year and a half in some neighborhoods, according to a top executive of the Fresh Meadows real estate company First Choice Real Estate Inc.
“There’s a lot of competition out there now — buyers are out there in droves. There are two to three buyers vying for some properties out there,” said Helen Keit, the vice president of new business development at First Choice, headquartered at 61-43 186th St. “You don’t have a place to expand, so that keeps the value going up.”
Keit said she did not have specific statistics on hand to document the increase, but judging from personal selling experience, she and other company brokers estimated that the real estate values have risen across Queens by up to 20 percent in some areas.
According to the company, which has 85 real estate agents who sold about 1,000 homes in the past year, the most expensive homes in the borough are in Bayside, partly because the neighborhood has the best-performing school district in the city.
The average selling price for a one-family home in Bayside between Jan. 1 and March 30 was $534,000, Keit said. In Fresh Meadows it was $471,000; in Flushing it was $406,000; in Jackson Heights it was $407,000; in Woodhaven it was $299,000; in Richmond Hill it was $281,000; in Ozone Park it was $280,000; and in Jamaica it was $204,000.
For two-family and multi-family homes, the average selling price between Jan. 1 and March 30 was $660,000 for Bayside; $567,000 for Fresh Meadows; $464,000 for Flushing; $554,000 for Jackson Heights; $409,000 for Woodhaven; $390,000 for Richmond Hill; $398,000 for Ozone Park; and $275,000 for Jamaica.
Many buyers are purchasing homes for the first time, which proves that Queens is still a choice place to live, Keit said.
“A lot of neighborhoods have been revitalized, and the schools are good,” Keit said. “In northeast Queens, the values are propelled by School District 26, the No. 1 school district in the metropolitan area.”
Joyce Zaborski, the associate director of residential sales at First Choice, said even the Sept. 11 attacks did not dampen business for long.
“The calls to the office slowed up a little bit the first week (after the attacks),” Zaborski said. “But the second week they were back up to normal, as if nothing had happened.”
The company receives about 25,000 calls a year, Zaborski said.
“We’re really a listing and selling machine,” Keit said.
First Choice not only sells property but also offers comprehensive services to help people relocate from other parts of the country and world into their new neighborhood, Keit said.
The relocation services, which are paid for from the sales commission, include tours of neighborhoods and counseling on schools, family services and elderly services in the area.
“We’re one of the only brokers that provide that service locally,” Keit said. “It’s really a sigh of relief that you don’t have to do this alone.”
In addition, First Choice also helps area residents to relocate to other parts of the country, through their broker network, Keit said.
Last year, First Choice sold more than $300 million worth of residential real estate, mostly in Queens, where the company specializes. The company was ranked among the top 550 out of 60,000 real estate brokers in the country by the National Real Estate Power Brokers Survey. For years, it has consistently sold the most real estate in Queens out of any company that sells in the borough, said Keit.
In addition to Queens real estate, First Choice also sells some property in Brooklyn and western Nassau County.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
