House of the Day: 38 Berkeley Place

It isn't a 20footer but yeah when I was looking intensively during spring and summer I would guess this place asking for $2.8+ and taking $2.6, instead of asking for $2.2

so that looks like a 20% drop in ask, although WL supposedly does this to generate interest so perhaps if someone offers ask, it is a 15% drop.

btw i don't really understand how the layout can work as a two family and as a one family it would appear to need re-thinking.

Quality House!! Reasonable price. Sanity at last...

This is the beginning. New homes on the market will have to be of this type of quality to garner $2MM+. No more fixer-uppers, or 3-4 family conversions.

For what its worth, seems this is between 5th and 6th Avenues, not in the primo area above 7th Avenue. I think this is in School District 13 and across the street from an elementary school, which I think is one of the better in that district, but not PS 321.

I prepaid for your analysis about a year and a half ago. I think declines in the primes will siphon back SOME buyers previously priced out. Some of 2005's Bed Stuy/Crown Heights shoppers may now be looking at Clinton Hill/Fort Greene. Clinton Hill/Fort Greene >> Park Slope. PSlope >> Manhatttan. Granted, some of the stuff thrown on the wall will stick. Historic Brooklyn will have grown on some shoppers/owners and they will stay. But I do think there will be a considerable flight back to the Gotham if things continue like they are.

$.02

I also love the house (based on the picture) although I am a bit annoyed about the double duplex layout, alas I would need about a further 30% price drop before I could even consider it. BTW, I do not agree with the analysis on pricing. This location is below 6th Ave (11217???) so not sure if it should command the pricing of "prime" Park Slope.

Get real 30% drop?? Back to 2003-044 prices?? Don't think so... This house is across from the school/playground and would never have been $2.8 mil. in the hard market of 2005... It would have been $2.395 mil. or about 10% more than WLR currently has it listed for. The North Slope is hot right now, much more in the way of transactions North of $2mil. than in Central Slope.

To Anon (1:06 - 1:09).

I was not suggesting that the market would or should drop by 30% - it was just a creative way of saying that the house was out of my price range. Please so try to read the post carefully before you pen an "outraged" response.

1:06,07,0-- you need to actually read the comments before going all wacko. The poster was not saying there had been a 30% decrease. However your 10% figure is ridiculous. This is asking about 19% less than what I spent on a similar house in a simlar spot almost two years ago. You can BS all you want, but there is no esaping decreasing prices.

I bet it goes for $2.5 in a bidding war.

i'll take that bet!

bunch of .....
can't you just live in your house, enjoy, make babies get older and then sell it? that way you will make money no doubt and you won't have to spend time writing this stupid things.If you were renting for the past few years, you also would have lost money, so what if we all stop gaining money on equity for a while? not big deal, we still have a nice place to live iv.

Given that they have already had 2 open houses, I doubt that there will be a "bidding war".

What's the highest prices anyone knows of for houses below 6th Avenue, like this one, that have sold are currently for sale?

I disagree that Bed Stuy/Crown Heights shoppers miraculously become Clinton Hill/Fort Greene shoppers. The first neighborhoods still carry a pretty steep discount on the others. Just because there's a blip in the marketplace doesn't mean people automatically have an extra $600K+ to spend on a house.

North Slope means closer to Flatbush Ave, South Slope means closer to the Prospect Expressway. Not above or below 7th Ave.

If WL is so good at pricing houses to move, then how do you explain all the listings that have been siting on the market for months, including one property on Garfield Place (prime PS) that looks like it is in pretty good shape.

Has anyone actually been inside 38 Berkeley Place. Is it in as good a shape as the pictures imply.

Used to be only prime, park block center slope houses and brooklyn heights homes commanded super high premiums. Now at the prices they are at many people would rather think outside the box and get out of those more stuffy (aka: overpriced) areas. After all at these price points they are probably thinking private school for their kids (if they have any) anyway. North Slope is kind of grimy to me. Wouldn't want to be that close to Flatbush. Otherwise I'd buy across Flatbush just in the beginnings of Prospect Heights and get the same house for $500k less. I think the new buyers are assuming there is prestige in being in the "Slope" but most old-timers don't consider that a prestigious buy because it's so far from the park. Whatever. If you like it and you have the % buy it.

7th Ave in the slope is now starting to grow old and smell stale. All the activity is down on 5th. In a few more years 7th will be all cell phone stores, and subway sandwich shops. 7th Ave is dirty noisy and over crowded. 6th Ave. has no commercial stores and many beautiful churches- it is an oasis compared to 7th Ave. I would never want to live near 7th.

‘This Isn’t A Bust, It’s A Correction’

A housing report from the New York Sun. “Soaring construction costs are putting the squeeze on the city’s private developers, real estate experts say, threatening New York’s housing boom. The president of Newmark Knight Frank Capital Group, James Kuhn, called construction costs ‘the single biggest problem in New York right now.’”

“He added that the costs will put pressure on the bigger, more ambitious, and long-term projects, including Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards. ‘When it was started, we were in a very, very bullish condo market,’ Mr. Kuhn said. ‘When it gets approved, will we be in a market that justifies construction at a number where you will be able to sell units?’”

“A residential developer, Jane Gladstein, said that increasing cost and softening demand means developers have to evaluate opportunities more conservatively. ‘The buoyancy of the last several years gave a false perspective on reality,’ Ms. Gladstein said. ‘We’ve had a sobering six months.’”

“The president for the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, said that construction costs are a problem born from the city’s recent success, and that eventually the market would correct itself as construction drops off and prices fall.”

“‘At some point there will be a collapse and a lot of suffering, and contractors and labor will be available at relatively low cost,’ Ms. Wylde said.”

As for it being close to 5th Avenue, simply considering what avenue we ourselves prefer for restaurants and shops - we MUCH prefer 5th Avenue. It's fresher, hipper, more going on. I never shop on 7th Avenue. My pharmacy is there, that's it. Anyhoo, am just saying some people especially younger couples, won't preceive being near 5th Avenue as inferior.

Plus Peter Saarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal just bought a house closer to 5th avenue than 7th avenue. Shows the appeal to younger buyers.

I agree with an earlier poster who mentioned that this is not really a two -family. It may have a two - family c/o, but it is configured as a 1-family.

I've always wondered whether there is a premium or discount applied if a house is a single family. For this house, I think the garden floor could be converted to a 1-beroom apartment. My guess is it would take about $75.0 k to do the conversion. Assuming you could rent it out for $1,500-$1,600 a month you'd have annual rental income of $18K-$19K which could cover about $275K of mortage. With a purchase price of $2.195 million + $75K of renovation cost your all in is about $2.27 million which means your're paying $2.0+ million for a triplex. If someone is going to pay that amount of money, I think they'd just look at the house as a single family at $2.195 million.

Who the hell is Peter Saarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal

I understand the benefit of extra income with a two-family, but at what price. For the Berkely Place house the value of the rental is about $200k ($275K amount of mortgage it can service less $75K renovation costs). Assuming a purchase at ask, your getting an owners triplex for about $1.995 million ($2.195 price less $200K rental value). I'd rather just by a single family for $1.995 million (if I could) and avoid the hassle of being a loandlord.

How about closing costs?

Shouldn't they clock in at abou 100k on a 2mil property?

*choke*

Really, that much for closing costs? I dunno, ours was $8K for our $850K house this year.

7th avenue is slowly changing...ie Sweet Melissa just opened and a Tempo Presto is coming. As commercial leases come up, more trendy stuff will improve 7th avenue.

The house on Garfield that WLR tilts a little.. there is an underground stream running near it.. This is why it has been sitting so long. The house would not have been 20% more one year go.. Possibly 10% more. It will probably sell North of $2mil. but just barely