What Was That Loud Noise? The Next Building Boom.

We take you back now to the good old days just before the last New York City real estate bubble burst. In the first quarter of 2017, the Real Deal reports, the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) approved construction of more than 6,000 residential units – the most in any first quarter since 2007, shortly before the city’s real estate market tanked.

The sudden surge in new construction permits follows a lull in 2016, and it’s attributed in part to the April revival of the 421-a tax abatement for developers who promise to include a specified percentage of affordable units in their new buildings. The tax break is now called “Affordable New York” but is known in some circles as “Welfare for Developers.”

“For those anxious that the boom times in the residential construction sector might have ended in 2015, the data from the first three months of 2017 should elicit a huge sigh of relief,” says Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress.

The loudest boom will be heard in Brooklyn, where more than a third of the new permits – 2,097, to be exact – were issued. That was followed by Manhattan with 1,486 units, Queens with 1,434 and the Bronx with 1,124. Staten Island logged 202 units.