BROOKLYN — Brooklyn's becoming home to the wealthy.
All signs point to a rise in people earning $300,000 a year or more flooding brownstone enclaves like Park Slope and Carroll Gardens and hot communities like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, according to Ideal Properties' inaugural "profile of home buyers in Brownstone Brooklyn" quarterly report released Tuesday.
The number of these high-income earners who bought homes in these areas shot up more than 316 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous year.
They accounted for 30 percent of the buyers, the report found.
"The reality is that people with deeper pockets and a lot more cash available are buying in the area," said Aleksandra Scepanovic, managing director of Ideal Properties, who has been working in Prospect Heights for more than a decade.
Her office decided to sort through buyer data after a client, "who in any other circumstance or country would be considered wealthy," was considering selling a Prospect Heights townhouse because "the filthy-rich people were moving into the neighborhood," Scepanovic recounted.
She wanted to find out what was going on beyond that person's block.
"A lot of our agents are working with buyers who, even if they have $500,000 in savings and $200,000 available to put down, [agents] are shopping them around with hundreds like them or better qualified," she said.
For those who don't have that kind of money, Scepanovic said, "The question is whether you'll be able to purchase the exact property that you want. Even if you can somewhat afford a specific property, there will probably be someone else with more disposable income or liquid assets [who will] beat you. So, you may have to settle."
Full article in DNAinfo.com