The reasons for this are somewhat self-evident, according to the report. Under-$500k properties “tick a lot of boxes: An entry level home for millennials where a mortgage payment is equal to or less than what renting would cost, an affordable pied a terre for out-of-towners or a buy-and-hold for investors.” 

On top of all that, less-luxe pads dodge the mansion tax bullet, and usually don’t come with exorbitant monthly fees. According to AMNY, “A look at Marketproof’s recent data analysis for Brooklyn confirms this with 509 condos sold in October alone and just over half  (275) priced at under $1 million. Of those, 66 were priced under $500,000. At this price point, newly constructed units in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Bushwick fit the bill of many buyers.”

Indeed, all the specific properties mentioned in the article -- except for one, Eleven Hancock in Harlem -- are in Brooklyn or Queens, which perhaps underscores the sluggishness of the Manhattan market, where ‘affordable’ means something quite different than it does in less cutthroat markets.