Neighborhoods in the central and eastern parts of Brooklyn largely remain low-income. But a combination of scarce listings, high demand and rapid-fire gentrification has sent prices soaring in the northwest quadrant, from Red Hook to Greenpoint along the waterfront and inland to Gowanus and Park Slope South. In the second quarter of 2014, 107 sales priced above $2 million took place, more than any other prior quarter, according to the Corcoran Group. Those deals included a $10.625 million townhouse on Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights, a $5 million loft in a shoe polish factory turned luxury condo building in Williamsburg, and a $3.15 million condo in Dumbo, to name a few.

Such high-end sales helped shrink the gap in median real estate price, which measures the middle of the market, between Brooklyn ($575,000) and Manhattan ($910,000) by 33 percent to $335,000 in the second quarter, down from $500,000 in 2008, before the collapse of the real estate market, said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm.

Renters aren’t faring much better. The median rental price in northern Brooklyn was up 6.6 percent to $2,852 in July, marking the 14th consecutive year-over-year increase in monthly rent, according to a report by Douglas Elliman. That is $353 cheaper than the median monthly rent in Manhattan. Five years ago Brooklyn was $1,030 cheaper.

Image Credit... Emily Andrews for The New York Times

Sure, some Brooklynites who have noticed the shrinking gap are choosing to settle in the far corners of the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan. But Brooklyn has shed its image as a bargain-priced alternative to Manhattan.

“One of the things I find sort of fascinating is that there were so many people in the city in my generation whose parents were struggling to get either themselves or their kids out of Brooklyn, and those people’s kids are now back in Brooklyn,” said Frederick Peters, 62, the president of Warburg Realty, a luxury Manhattan-based brokerage firm. “It kind of changed from Manhattan being aspirational for the generation of people who are 40 or under, to Brooklyn being aspirational.” As a result, he said, “most of the Brooklyn business we do is with people for whom that’s their first choice.”

The tendency is to move the search deeper into Brooklyn before looking elsewhere. Then, somewhere around Midwood, brokers say, the train ride to Manhattan becomes an issue for commuters and people begin searching for alternatives — including in areas they may have turned up their noses at just a few years ago.