Townhouse Prices Rising Quickly in Bed Stuy East of Malcolm X Boulevard

Townhouses in Bed Stuy east of Malcolm X are starting to see the same kind of rapid price appreciation that kicked off in the west end of the neighborhood close to Clinton Hill in the summer and fall of 2011 and then spread to Stuyvesant Heights in 2012.

A townhouse at 732 Macon Street, which was a House of the Day in March, just closed for the asking price of $1,225,000 in an all-cash deal, Halstead agent Morgan Munsey, who handled the sale, told us. It is a probable record for the area, where a few townhouse sales have recently closed for just under $1 million. The purchasers are not investors and intend to live in the house.

A four-story double duplex two-family, the house is in good condition with recently updated mechanicals and systems but also has lots of original details as well as fairly generic renovated kitchens and baths. This sale, as well as 417A Halsey, 333 MacDonough Street and others, clearly shows that townhouse buyers in the area prefer renovated houses with details and that these types of houses set price records, which are then followed by flip jobs with no interior details and, last, by fixer-uppers.

The price history of 732 Macon over the years perfectly reflects what is happening in the neighborhood. It sold for $560,000 in 2006, then was on the market again for $790,000 in 2011 but did not sell. (It was also a House of the Day in 2011.)

Built in 1891 by architects Cornell and Barnes, it’s in the proposed Stuyvesant East Historic District and close to Saratoga Park.

We also hear the house next door, at 730A Macon, is in contract for the ask, which is $1,100,000.

The overall record for a townhouse sale in all of Bed Stuy is still the Parfitt Brothers-designed Queen Anne townhouse at 254 Gates Avenue, which sold for $2,200,000 in January of 2013.