Moving To Brooklyn: What To Consider Before Contacting An Agent

There was a time when moving to Brooklyn meant living in the shadow of Manhattan—Gotham, The Big Apple, and The City That Never Sleeps. That’s no longer true. Brooklyn has a vibe of its own now with special allure and affordable buying options for homeowners of every stripe, from middle-aged professionals looking for a suburban-like feel, to young singles, hipsters, and first-time homebuyers who may be looking to raise a family.

Moving to Brooklyn - Choosing a Neighborhood

You’ll need to cycle through a bevy of neighborhood options before deciding where to move in New York City’s third-largest borough, from a single-family home in sunny Brighton Beach or waterfront communities in Sheepshead Bay and Canarsie, to a beautiful brownstone in epic Park Slope or a loft in hipster-Willamsburg. You should outline the parameters you’ll use to narrow down your home-buying search. Brooklyn neighborhoods are stack-ranked in all the ways you’d expect, from people—e.g., the number of professionals, singles, families with kids, retirees, gay or lesbians— to affordability and personality factors, including safety, peace and quiet, neighborhood- friendliness and clean and green, not to mention things to do, from eating out, nightlife, shopping, parks and recreation to additional considerations, such as parking, ease of commute and proximity to Manhattan. List out environmental factors and other criteria that are non-negotiable, and then move on to the ones you’d be willing to sacrifice, if needed.

Best Times Of Year To Buy A Home in Brooklyn

People purchase homes throughout the year in Brooklyn, but the inventory is usually higher in the spring, after the holidays and winter weather have died down. These so-called blackout months when home-buying traffic slows typically occur during the winter, but weeks of sweltering heat in August can produce a blackout month with equal efficiency. Keep in mind that financial factors, such as lower mortgage rates, may become an overriding factor that determines when and where you can purchase a home in Brooklyn, regardless of the season, and that you should be prepared for lower inventories in certain neighborhoods at every time of year. For example, you’ll want to be poised to score the best deal at any time if neighborhoods like Dumbo, Williamsburg or Brooklyn Heights are on your watch list and a property comes up that aligns with your criteria. Other dependencies can factor into the best time of year to purchase as well. For example, a recent scarcity of inventory in prime areas of brownstone Brooklyn meant different things for different neighborhoods. Prices in 2013 dropped in areas like Cobble Hill, owing to an overall lack of available properties, but neighboring Carroll Gardens, where several new developments were built, became Brooklyn’s most expensive neighborhood, with a median rise in price to $985,000—a bump of 43 percent over 2012, according to the Daily News. (1) Additionally, the winter buying market of 2012 defied all slow-buying-month expectations, when fears of capital gains tax increase spurred an unprecedented home-selling and home-buying spree.

Planning the Move-In Process to Brooklyn

It’s natural and understandable to have logistical concerns connected with your move to Brooklyn. If you’re moving here from outside the city, you could be concerned about parking permits, commercial vehicle restrictions on certain highways, or even the vicissitudes of navigating a large moving van along some of Brooklyn’s narrow residential streets. Not to worry. With a little planning and foresight, all of this manageable.

Parking Permits and Highway, Bridge & Tunnel Restrictions

Although a parking permit is not required for a moving van in Brooklyn, it’s helpful to know which days alternate side of the street parking may be required in your new neighborhood. You may want to save a street parking space near your new home ahead of the moving van’s arrival so they’ll have a place to park when they arrive on your block. Otherwise, the movers may be forced to double-park, potentially blocking street traffic. Let’s face it: The onus of burden to figure this out rests with the commercial moving company you’ve hired, if you’re going that route, right? But it’s still good to understand the lay of the land in case the moving company attempts to pass on some bogus fees. You can find out about NYC alternate side of the street parking restrictions here.

The same logic applies to highway restrictions: It’s the moving company’s job to know which highways and which tunnels and bridges they can use to conduct your move. There are a number of restrictions, including general commercial vehicle restrictions that prohibit your moving company from driving a semi-trailer over the Holland Tunnel or Brooklyn Bridge, for example, and they may be required to follow a specific route (based on vehicle height) to get to your home, depending on which neighborhood you choose. It’s similarly illegal to park a commercial moving van on the street overnight pretty much anywhere in New York City. Again, your moving company should already know this. In terms of truck sizes, smaller trucks will make it easier for you to get around the city. For example, U-Haul locations in Brooklyn have a large fleet of 10’ trucks and cargo vans that are easy to maneuver and park and big enough for large pieces of furniture. U-Haul trucks aren’t considered to be commercial vehicles for licensing purposes and can be driven with a normal driver’s license. But the NYC DOT has different qualifications pertaining to heights between 48’ and 53’ and weight, and for trucks with commercial branding. Use this helpful site to learn more about NYC vehicle size and weight restrictions and consult this blog post to learn more about NYC parkway restrictions.

Reserve an Elevator

Lastly, if your Brooklyn home is located in a building or high-rise you may need to reserve time to use the elevator during your move. Freight elevators are available in certain buildings, which make it much easier to move your larger items. You can usually set this up with the administrator of the building.