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January 13, 2006
Residential Sales in Brooklyn
BOERUM HILL $887,000
210 Hoyt Street
2-family, 3-story attached town house; 1 bedroom, 1 bath, home office in each upstairs residential unit, 850 sq. ft. of commercial space in first-floor vacant storefront; full basement, rear garden; taxes $2,185; listed at $925,000, 3 weeks on market (broker: Corcoran Group)
WILLIAMSBURG $1,165,000
425 Metropolitan Avenue
3-family, 3-story, 105-year-old woodframe house; 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, dining room, hardwood floors, original moldings and detail in each unit; finished basement, rear garden; 20-by-78-ft. lot; taxes $2,126; listed at $1.25 million, 8 weeks on market (broker: Kline Realty)
From the print edition of yesterday's New York Times.
Comments
Both below asking, and not even after that long on the market. Sign of a softening market?
And both make yesterday's HOTD in Vinegar Hill seem really overpriced, at least in my opinion.
Posted by: Sloper at January 13, 2006 12:22 PM
The Hoyt Street house is right across from the Gowanus houses.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 13, 2006 1:27 PM
"The Hoyt Street house is right across from the Gowanus houses"? What difference does it make? Would it be better if it was located around the corner or two blocks away? If so, then I ask you how? Did the city recently erect a fifty foot cement wall around the projects thereby effectively restricting the mobility of its residents? Is there some established rule of thumb that criminals only pray on neighbors who live directly across the street but never those around the corner? If the Hoyt Street property should trade lower due to its proximity to the Gowanus Houses then the argument could be made that so should most of Boerum Hill?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 13, 2006 4:28 PM
"The Hoyt Street house is right across from the Gowanus houses"? What difference does it make? Would it be better if it was located around the corner or two blocks away? If so, then I ask you how? Did the city recently erect a fifty foot cement wall around the projects thereby effectively restricting the mobility of its residents? Is there some established rule of thumb that criminals only pray on neighbors who live directly across the street but never those around the corner? If the Hoyt Street property should trade lower due to its proximity to the Gowanus Houses then the argument could be made that so should most of Boerum Hill?
Posted by: BrownBomber at January 13, 2006 4:29 PM
Price drop doesn't surprise me. It's a few doors down from the 24-hour Express Deli, a notorious hangout for drug dealers, who deal outside all night long. Constant noise and police activity on that stretch--I should know: I live around right the corner on Butler. So maybe you won't get mugged, but if you live there, you won't probably won't get any sleep either.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 13, 2006 4:38 PM
if the house was a couple of blocks away from the projects, it would have been worth more money. this house literally faced an ugly project. so I think BrownBomber is nuts.
ps, houses directly on prospect park are worth more than those 2 blocks away. it's about a little thing called location
Posted by: Anonymous at January 13, 2006 4:50 PM
brownbomber has a bee in his brown bonnet
Posted by: Anonymous at January 13, 2006 5:38 PM
Brownbomber, I take your point but really it's just stating a marketplace reality that an address across the street from the PJs will be worth somewhat less than an address around the corner. Out of sight is out of mind.
Posted by: Anon at January 13, 2006 6:30 PM
"Out of sight is out of mind"? Question, does that make you any safer? In law school we called this "willful blindness." Others may have called it "contributory negligence". I prefer to call it just plain old "stupid". Though I believe in the old adage that "location is everything" it is not entirely true. Though only a few might benefit from lake, park or ocean views, having a housing project across the street does not only hurt those neighbors but everyone in the immediate community.
Posted by: BrownBomber at January 13, 2006 10:00 PM
Hoyt Street etc etc...
OK, I may be the Brownstoner reader who lives closer to the building in question than anyone. Trust me, $887,000 is a hefty sum for a place that's basically a vacant building in between a crappy laundromat, a crappy supermarket and directly across from the (fill in your own adjective[s]) projects.
I think the asking price of $925,000 was beyond laughable, but in this market the realtor had less lost his/her mind than simply used example from all around. I've been in this neighborhood 9 years-- and very near the address noted for 1 1/2 years-- and I would say coughing up close to 900K for a place is not just a sign of a stronger-than-I-expected market, but an indication of tremendous faith on the part of the buyer. (Maybe just faith in making $$$ as a landlord-- or maybe, like us, faith in certain funky neighborhoods, or in Brooklyn in general, or New York City.
As I type this, a small fight has blown up and resolved itself. The cops came. Some people yelled. If you walk by here in half an hour, much less tomorrow morning, you wouldn't know it had happened. Maybe that's the kind of morning when the buyers came by.
--c
Posted by: c at January 14, 2006 1:02 AM
Nice point C. Didn't have all of the facts. Sounds like an ugly local. In the end, buyers will have to make the call. Price might be a bit too high but the market will dictate. Nonetheless, I always welcome having fresh and optimistic types move into the neighborhood, even in the roughest parts, because it promotes positive change.
Posted by: BrownBomber at January 14, 2006 6:36 AM
BrownBomber - why do you post if you no idea? Apparently you have never been on Hoyt across the projects at night. I live only two blocks away from the projects on a side street and feel save there. But I never walk past the projects at night as I do not want to risk being mugged.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 14, 2006 10:00 AM
I've known more people who've gotten mugged in Boreum Hill than in any other neighborhood in Brownstone Brooklyn. I haven't hung out there in a while, but when I did in the mid- and late-90s kids from the projects were always preying on the more affluent (i.e., white, people living in the brownstones, coming home drunk from the Brooklyn Inn, etc. No value judgement, just a fact -- and probably inevitable when you have a very underprivilaged population butting right up against a wealthy one.
Posted by: anonymous at January 14, 2006 9:31 PM
I'm just making the logical argument that, if crime is your major concern, it makes no difference. If you're living across the street or around the corner, its bascially the same risk. On the other hand, one might even assert that across the street is probably safer since muggers are probably not going to rob someone who essentially lives across the street and who can easily identify them. However, if your primary concern is the aesthetics of living across the street from an unattractive high rise, then you have a very valid point.
Posted by: BrownBomber at January 15, 2006 3:09 PM
i think that $925 bldg across from the PJs has been on craigslist for a lot longer than 3 weeks. Isn't it the place with the laundromat on the first floor?
Posted by: chuck at January 16, 2006 4:24 PM
no that's 208 Hoyt
Posted by: Anonymous at January 16, 2006 7:09 PM
It is not just a matter of mugging. Last year a pregnant woman was shot and killed from a stray bullet in those projects. Last winter some teenage residents of those projects decided to hide in amongst the parked cars and ambush passers by. For these reasons I feel that I am safer not having to walk past those buildings. I live one block away and I don't want to get any closer. It is unfortunate, but it is justifiable to assign less worth to property encircling those projects. That said, I question the $1.375 million dollar price of a property on Warren St. wedged in between the Gowanus Houses and, I believe, the Wyckoff Houses. Maybe I am crazy, but I think the price is way too high.
Posted by: A at January 17, 2006 8:21 PM
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