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September 14, 2006

House of the Day: Pushing $9 Mil on Willow Street

house
Although we doubt there's a single person reading this out there who can afford the $8.995 million price tag, it's always fun to see how the other 1% is living. As we've discussed before, we think pricing in this range is a lot more random, given the less efficient market and the arguably different decision criteria of extremely wealthy buyers. So while it's entirely possible someone might drop this kind of dough on this place, we wouldn't bet on it. A year ago, maybe. But maybe not. Despite the 7,200 square feet, the 25-foot width, the unbeatable location, something doesn't feel quite right to us about this place. We suspect it's the recent renovation that, in our opinion, did not honor the house's history enough. What are we referring to? The tile in the entry way and bathrooms, the doors leading out the terrace, the built-ins in the upstairs bedroom. (To be fair, the kitchen looks very nice, though, and the parlor floor looks to be largely intact.) Perhaps we're nit-picking, but at that price, we'd want things to be perfect. Then again, if you can afford that number, you can probably also afford to renovate it to your own taste. Are we just being a grump here or do others share our take? Is this price achievable in the current market environment?
71 Willow Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark

Comments

I have only one response to this--why not just say the house is $9m? At this price, who is going to say "8.995, wow, that's closer to eight than nine, I can afford it!" As to the rest...whatever.

Posted by: west at September 14, 2006 12:12 PM

Can't you buy a townhouse in Manhattan for that price? I don't think it's all that...

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 12:26 PM

I think this is beautiful, though I couldn't afford more than 1/8 of it!
There are a handful of Brooklyn Hts single family brownstones priced at $7 mil and above that have been on the market for over a year. About 2 years ago, one sold on Columbia Hts for about $8 mil, and ever since, all the brokers have been trying to beat that.

Here's one on the Promenade with an elevator, that hasn't sold. Of course they are asking $12.9 mil!! http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?ListingID=768269&Region=NYC

Posted by: Anne at September 14, 2006 12:45 PM

I'm usually a defender of tonwhouse values, but this offering is riduculous. Corocan has a listing for a house on Remsen (better street) that is much nicer looking. That listing is $5.9 million.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 12:50 PM

The kitchen looks like an operating room. What is this place trying to be? Nah, Brownstoner, you're not nit-picking. It looks pretty charm- free from what I can see. Maybe it's trying to be a loft. The price? Well.... the Corcoran approach is to rush in like a lion price-wise. That is a very nice area there in the North Heights, close to the Promenade and Willow Street is beautiful. Even if I won the Lottery and had the 9 million bucks, I could think of lots of other things to buy, even in the Heights. Well, off to buy a Lotto ticket...

Posted by: donatella at September 14, 2006 12:58 PM

this is for someone who wants a manhattan-priced townhouse without the inconvenience of living in manhattan...

Posted by: sylvia at September 14, 2006 1:00 PM

people...it's a flipper...bought a little more than a yr ago for $4mm...that's why it looks like crap and why they are asking so much...b/c it's a flipper.

Posted by: anon at September 14, 2006 1:00 PM

it may be overpriced, probably rediculously overpriced, but saying it "looks like crap" sounds like sour grapes. it doesn't.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 1:07 PM

Ok, one more thing. According to the listing, the "owners are heartbroken they have to relocate before moving into their dream house." I FEEL their pain. I really do...and that's a great selling point too. Here's 9 million dollars. Do you folks feel better now?

Posted by: west at September 14, 2006 1:17 PM

so, now that everyone has had their fun...the house that's mentioned for 12M was once 16M and hasn't moved for almost 2 years now. the house on willow was originally purchased a few years ago for 2.1M (and you should hear the story about how that happend...via one of Corcoran's unscrupulous agents...)and immediately flipped for around 4M. They've been working on it for a while and now they want almost 9M...what a joke. almost as funny as how the 2.1M deal went through.

Posted by: me at September 14, 2006 1:39 PM

HA...the kitchen does look like an operating room!

Posted by: uto at September 14, 2006 1:44 PM

Yeah... I'll take the fireplace with the vestal virgins and that's IT! I'm outta there.

Posted by: donatella at September 14, 2006 2:55 PM

Kara's pretty hot, is she single?

Posted by: Beef Stu at September 14, 2006 2:55 PM

So, what is the story re purchasing the house for $2.1 M?

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 3:36 PM

Yeah, please tell us the story!!!

Beef Stu: Kara would clearly eat you alive.

Posted by: west at September 14, 2006 3:42 PM

insane price - even for a pretty house on willow. clearly a flip job. And a portion of the 7250 square feet is actually in the celler. last time I checked celler space was not selling for over $1000 a square foot.

Kara should have put "My flipper client has flipped out wanting to sell this for $9M but I took the listing anyway, hopefully he will reduce the price before too long."

Posted by: anon at September 14, 2006 3:50 PM

The house is 25 x 52 with a 2 floor extension. They are not calculating the basement. It sold for $4mil according to property records. Many houses in the heights have gone in the 6-10 range now. Fairly average houses go in the $4mil range. Even according to the REBY 2006 report you posted on Brownstoner last week the average price for a townhouse in the heights is over $3. I don’t think any of you actually read the full set up. It’s one of those crazy post mod- computer houses where you can do things like call it and order the kitchen to cook dinner for you while you while you are on the way home. They wrote about it those tech features for the ultra luxury properties on curbed. I’m not that lazy yet.. I turn my heat off and on manually. But suppose the person who buys this will deem that cave man like.

Posted by: brk2 at September 14, 2006 5:46 PM

The house looks antiseptic. My house cost 1/10th of this property and I wouldn't trade it for this house.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 6:46 PM

For the interest on 3 million, I could hire maid, a cook, and a gardener....

Posted by: Anonymous at September 14, 2006 7:36 PM

"Millions" for a freakin' townhome in Brooklyn!. If I were an old-time Brooklynite come back to life after being dead for only 40 years I'd probably just croak again from the shock...

...of laughing so hard

Posted by: Desk Sgt. at September 14, 2006 8:07 PM

Someone asked what kind of people live in the Heights. Brooklyn Heights has lots of long term residents -- people who were pioneers at one time, who took a chance on living there when it suffered from the same crime problems we associate with the frontiers. It really has a village feel and has become pretty affluent -- lots of people who work in the Financial district and go one or two stops. Brooklyn Heights is also the cosmic headquarters of the Jehovah Witnesses, who came to some kind of peace with the neighborhood by not ringing goddamn
doorbells on Sunday mornings and not building any more residences. They have several hotel like residences and local planning boards said no more. If you compare it to Manhattan, it has an East side feel compared to Park Slope being more WEst Side. I can't say Brooklyn Heights is cool, hip, diverse, cutting edge on anything, brimming with energy and newness. It has crappy restaurants (except for Noodle Pooding) and OK services. But it is pretty, peaceful, the Promenade is just beautiful, especially at night (that 12+ million place looks like another overpriced deal, but it is on Columbia St facing the harbor and you can't find a more beautiful view of NY Harbor in NYC in my view.) But Brooklyn Heights has a kind of staid eeling; maybe it's the heavy concentration of Wall Street professionals. There are many clubs for proper old ladies and old fashioned men, and old Protestant churches (forget the denominations) like St. Annes, Plymouth (lots of DAR ladies), and others. There's the Cadman Plaza complex which is Mitchell Lama on the North side which is middle income; the old St. George Hotel which partially burned down 7 or 8 years ago is rebuilt and has fancy dancy condos and part of it has migrated from a pretty edgy HRA SRO to dorm rooms for surrounding University students. There are two Catholic Churches, Mt. Sinai Synagogue, and an Maronite Orthodox Church, all very active. I lived there happily for many years, but my new digs in Fort Greene suit me just fine these days.

Posted by: donatella at September 14, 2006 10:00 PM

Ha! This house will never sell north of $5M, if even that much. More like
$4.5M if they get lucky. There are far better homes on the market at this price point. The flipper and the broker are both on that extra special kool-aid. Jim Jones where are you?!?

Posted by: BrownBomber at September 14, 2006 10:12 PM

if you drive by willow and pineapple (it will be on your left hand side) you'll see the house. it is the ugly one with stripped blue and white awnings on every window and doorway...never quite understood this design, but never-the-less, to market it for 9M you must be on drugs

Posted by: u at September 15, 2006 11:20 AM

oops, my bad. i don't think it's the one with the awnings but next door. in any case it still ain't worth 9M

Posted by: u at September 15, 2006 11:34 AM

why did they do that to a brownstone??
it looks like one of those soul-less generic "luxury condominium" home depot-type interiors.

people choose a brownstone to have an old fashioned look and feel.

a travesty to have done that.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 15, 2006 9:53 PM

bit of stretch to ever call 'pioneers' someone who moved to Bklyn Hts. Always
had rep as more moneyed area...even though some decay years ago similar to UWS. St. George was problem and some apt bldgs not kept up etc. But never considered not nice neighborhood. Always plenty of old-money people.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 16, 2006 12:33 PM

I don't know 12:33 anon. I know Patty Duke used to live there.... You are right about the old money but it was spooky there in the '70s --plenty of SROs, plenty of drugs, plenty of crime. I have a couple of friends in the North Heights who bought their house - Adams family condition -- in the '70s and there was open drug use and junkies hanging out on their stoop. When I moved there in '84, I wasn't old money or new money, I was broke. The St. George was a disaster - a welfare hotel with lots of AIDS patients who hung out in wheel chairs meeting their drug dealers. I was hanging out with a friend on the Promenade early evening in Sep 1985 and we got held up at gunpoint. And it was CHANGING then. Well, maybe it's the story of NYC as the crime rate which was outrageous in the 70s went down. Maybe that's the story of Brooklyn as the crime rate changed and demographics shifted with more movement back to the city. Well, you get the picture....

Posted by: donatella at September 17, 2006 3:04 PM

I'd say the truth is somewhere in-between these two comments. Yes, the North Heights in particular got pretty funky, but it there were always moneyed people there---like Edward Safra. In addition to Wall St types, lots of lawyers---the joke was that the associates live on the UES, but when they make partner they move to BH. I agree that it's rather staid, but the flip side is that residents are protective of the neighborhood and organized. BH was the first landmarked area in the entire city---back in the late 60s, I think---and almost the entire area is protected, which means you don't have to worry aboput some monstrosity being built next to you. And you can't beat the combination of beautiful architecture with extremely convenient transportation, especially in the South Heights, where you're within a few blocks of the 2,3,4,5,N,R,A,C,and F trains!

Posted by: BH resident at September 18, 2006 10:36 AM

All of Corcoran's townhouse listings are overpriced case in point:

872 Carroll Street at $3.195 (should be $2.6 or $2.7 mil.)

587 6th Street at $2.8mil. should be $2.4 or $2.5 mil.

450 8th Street (dog) at $ 2.2 mil should be $1.8 mil.

New Sackett house priced at $1.6 mil. should be $1.3 or $1.4 mil..

Corcoran's mgmt. has no clue...

Posted by: Anonymous at September 18, 2006 5:23 PM

71 Willow Street closed for $8.0M in April 2007

Posted by: guest at November 28, 2007 7:05 PM

« Luxury Condos Come to Windsor Terrace Thursday On The Record »

September 14, 2006

House of the Day: Pushing $9 Mil on Willow Street

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