23-South-Portland-031610.jpg
The owner of 23 South Portland Avenue must not be in a big hurry, because the three-family brownstone has sat on the market for the last three years without a price reduction. (In fact, the price is now $100,000 more than the $2,500,000 price back in 2007.) That number may not sound insane for a five-story house on the most desirable block in Fort Greene until you consider this comment from the House of the Day thread from September 2007:

This house is currently completely demolished on the inside–there are no floors or walls. It is a shell, albeit a nice one, since the facade was recently redone. A buyer would have to build this house from scratch. About the nutty price, they’re trying to sell you a shell at move-in condition prices. There are a few details remaining on the parlor floor, a pier mirror, a marble mantel, and some cracked remnants of ornamental molding.

Has anyone been inside more recently or know more about the back-story?
23 South Portland Avenue Listing [Crewstown Realty] GMAP
House of the Day: 23 South Portland Avenue [Brownstoner]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. So, BHO, given everything you’ve told us, would you guess this house will sit empty for years? What will happen? Do you think it might finally be sold for much less and get renovated? Is it sellable at any decent price in this market? Or ultimately, is this the kind of property the City ends up having to take over?

  2. BHO–I give you credit for relentlessly ringing the bell of economic fundamentals and I certainly have gotten a much better understanding over the past few years of how much risk and manipulation went into today’s housing prices and yet I still think that what you are saying is only one possible outcome and by no means a certainty. “Could” is the best anyone can say right now.

  3. Absolutely, wasder.

    Like back when they said “housing COULD be in a bubble”, “the bubble COULD burst”, “subprime COULD spill over into prime (what weapons-of-mass-destruction bullshit argument about the real problem THAT was BTW)”, “the economy COULD go into recession”, “rents COULD drop”, “the stock market COULD crash”, “The new, market-rate-thirsty Stuyvesant Town owners COULD default and walk away”, “Greece COULD default”, etc etc etc.

    How ’bout the operative question: How could price gains (the whole +200%, not just the +1% or so blip since March that is now fading even with preforeclosure warehousing) NOT be UNDID by contraction of the very credit that DID them and the massive release of intrinsically-valued collateral that was fraudulently modeled to secure them? You would be so happy to only see just ‘half off’.

    ***Bid half off peak comps***