Open House Picks

Having grown up in Brooklyn, I never thought I would see the day when it cost over 2 mil to live off of Myrtle Ave.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 1:38 PM

is that a joke? $2.3 to live in Clinton Hill? I don't care how nice the house is, it's still Bed-Stuy!

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 2:06 PM

Elizabeth-
I agree. There seems to be nothing of quality under 1mil in DP. The trick now seems to be finding the balance of quality and price. In the case of this house- it wouldn't really be for me for one main reason- Dorchestor lacks the charm of some of the north/south streets. Plus it is sort of small. But that's just me.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 2:25 PM

I don't care how beautiful Washington Ave is...it's still Bed-Stuy!

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 2:50 PM

I'm with rf. That area is beautiful. That said I think everything in Brooklyn is overpriced these days.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 2:56 PM

ah, ok, sure. All of fg and ch are really bed stuy, those fellas in the 1840s who starting building mansions and later rowhouses in the area clearly had it wrong when they referred to the area as Clinton Hill and Fort Greene...

If you're trying to equate the area with negative connotations of 1980s Bed-Stuy do or die, then well, I don't know what to say other than you are ill informed and stuck in a time warp. This is certainly not the first listing of this cost (though it is high) in the area.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 2:59 PM

someone on Washington Ave is going to laughing all the way to the bank...sucker born everyday I suppose.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:23 PM

I get the feeling there isn't much on the market or much to choose from in Park Slope right now.

Has anybody else noticed the same?

That might justify the price on the Slope bldg.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:24 PM

18ft is somewhat typical width for a Bklyn brownstone - skinny would be 16-17ft.

There's an armchair critic born everyday.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:26 PM

18 is & will always be less than 25

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:27 PM

The Washington house is 21 ft wide. Check your facts first, Bob.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:31 PM

Brownstoner is Clinton Hill-centric in case you hadn't noticed.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:32 PM

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:31 PM...careful, you might reveal yourself as the owner.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:33 PM

How'd you see Washington as 18Ft wide?
Propshark says 21'.
On other hand Dorchester is 18' and
Park Slope 7th street is 16.5' (and priced at $1.7m).
(and please ignore the bait when someone tries to denigrate some area.
I think it is called computer sex...some unemployed dork living in his mothers finished basement beats off as he gets otherwise sane people to respond to his taunts).

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:37 PM

I saw the Ditmas House several years ago when it was on the market. I think it is the same house that belonged to one of the owners of Uncle Pho's on smith street. The kitchen is nice but the house is very small. $1.1 that is nutz in any case.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:43 PM

I saw the Ditmas House several years ago when it was on the market. I think it is the same house that belonged to one of the owners of Uncle Pho's on Smith street. The kitchen is nice but the house is very small. And the upstairs layout was odd if i remember correctly. Also that kitchen was done back then so at this point it is no longer new. $1.1 that is nutz in any case.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 3:45 PM

gates house is the ticket (best value for dollar). street offers great views during the springtime (tree-lined apple blossoms).

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 6:49 PM

the house on washington is 21 ft wide not 18 ft. what is wrong with you stupid people? have you been inside to see it? i saw it on the house tour a few years ago and it is beautiful. if houses in park slope are $3M and houses in brooklyn heights $10M why can't a house in clinton hill be this price for such quality? is there a bit of racism going on here? hmmm....

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 7:10 PM

anon 7:28 i am not the owner, rather a black neighborhood resident who saw the house, and your racism is not unlike what i have encountered in my life from white people like you. can't you think of something else to do besides being a hater?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 7:47 PM

I agree that nice houses in Ditmas Park for under $1 million are hard to find these days. BUT this house has a number of things against it -- small, on Dorchester, and near a block that is not so great. I bet they thought "let's see how much we can get." But I think they would have been smarter to price it lower and have someone snap it up. I predict it will sit on the market until they have to lower. Perhaps they're not certain they really want to sell. I will be interested to see what happens!

-fd

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 8:27 PM

anon 7:48 you must not be black. we see it more because we live it. you all don't want to see it because you are the majority. why does barak obama need secret service protection, yet john edwards does not? did bull connor hit white people upside the head while marching over a bridge in selma? did the constitution make white people less than human? what was the civil war fought for? were caucasians slaves? are you american? did you not take history? racism is everywhere in america. hello are you there? and serge, if i had a bazillon dolkars, i would NEVER live in beverly hills.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 9:08 PM

Fine, here's $2,375,000. I don't want to be a racist!

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 9:16 PM

Person saying Washington Avenue = ghetto is just trying to get your goat. Ignore it/him. It is nonsensical.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2007 9:51 PM

I agree ignore it soon bed stuy won't be ghetto either. all things take time there are many beautiful brownstones in clinton hill, bed stuy and ft.greene, I'm happy the hoods' are changing. We as a people, all people, are changing and out lives should reflect the change:)

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2007 1:47 AM

I agree with Millie. I'd sign my own name but there are too many nasty people here, to do that. Plus stealing identities.

The Park Slope house is lovely. It's not too small as a single-family house, I'm cofused by that. If you bought a 4-story 2-family (for what, $2.5 million these days in Park Slope) you wouldn't get any more room than this in the owner's duplex or triplex. Also if you look at the condos in Park Slope, you can't get this much space plus yard in a condo for $1.7 million. Just compare to the Vermeil or the Meier building.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2007 1:41 PM

The days of decent houses in Ditmas Park for under a million were over last year, even. We went to some open houses in Ditmas last summer. The houses under or at a million needed tons of work, at a minimum $200,000. Plus the houses in that price range were small, like this one. I like small houses, but at a certain price for a smaller house you don't want to have to do that much work.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2007 2:02 PM

I say it all the time this site just seems to encourage people to pat themselves on the back for buying when they did and then they freely engage in bashing other neighborhoods...perhaps to make themselves feel better about something: their investment, the fact they didn't buy there, whatever. I am white btw, but I got to tell you that I just saw some spaced out white middle age chick panhandling and looking stoned out of her mind on PPW in Windsor Terrace the other day. Drugs and the scourge they are to people's lives sadly happens everywhere. There most definitely is a greater diversity overall in Clinton Hill than a place like Park Slope and of course people with less economic means are struggling in ways we probably cannot understand, unless we came out of the same poverty or work with that population on a daily basis. You can pretend that because you live somewhere that seems more upscale that you are protected from this city's great diversity. But you are all just fooling yourselves. We are all out there on the city streets, in the parks and on the subways. Now if you want to get me started on the families sending their kids to the private schools you will see me go off on what I do perceive as racism -- on the part of all the families of all colors that send their kids there. But in the neighborhoods it's all pretty much a mish-mash. Even the slope has section 8 housing.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2007 9:44 PM

Annie, if we were scared of blacks and browns and prefer white-washed neighborhoods we would never be living in Brooklyn. We would be out on Long Island or up in Westchester where my relatives live. The people in the burbs are the people you are thinking of.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 12:22 AM

Does anyone know when the Clinton Hill
name for the area started? I went to school in Bed=Stuy in the early sixties, there wasn't a "Clinton Hill" back then.
As for Bed Stuy being a great area.
There are some lovely old houses, but
the area is overpriced right now. Great buys ten years ago, even five. Now it seems at it's max for the next few years.
I have been in dozens of old shells over the last eight ten years, selling for
around 100K. Completely renovated on Jefferson Avenue for 350K five years ago
That housing project isn't going any
where. Prices can go up, prices can go
down, but do you really want to live
behind all those gates you see in the area.
A few years ago, right before Christmas, a friend of mine was shot to
death in a drive by, just an innocent
bystander, in Fort Greene, on a nice block. Yes, crime happens everywhere.
Do you really want to structure yuor life around a dangerous, yes dangerous
nabe. What should I wear=don't want to stick out, how late can I come home,etc.

We grew up tough, you had to be tough
to make it out of junior high school
back then.
I see the young men of today, walking
around the area, they wouldn't have made it out of seventh grade.
I would live in Washington Heights before i would live in Bed Stuy.
Better schools, better transportation,etc. After reading comments from others,I must say,
I am getting tired of young white kids telling us what's up.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 11:43 AM

That's sad about your friend, 11:43am. Do you think it's possible having more affluent professionals of all races in a neighborhood would present a more diverse set of role models for the kids there? Or do they see educated professionals as so "other" they don't relate? It's frustrating for me as a 39 white kid (that's young, right?) to see young black males stubbornly clinging to this street lifestyle, and concept of how they are supposed to be. It's so bafflingly conformist. I really don't believe the whole "low self-esteem" approach to social work has done a bit of good either. The kids should be told only they are responsible for what happens in their lives, and yes they've got it really tough but they should see their tough background as a challenge that will make them even more proud when they rise up out of it. It just seems the approach to social work is focused on pitying the kids and blaming society. Which is useless, even if there are truths to it. We should tell them something that will actually be effective at improving their lives. Not what makes ourselves feel more noble for helping them. Anyway, all this totally utterly OT off-topic, but there you go. My uninformed thoughts for the day.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 12:06 PM

Thank you Christopher. I was the OP about the private schools and race issue. It astounds me how people think they are above race and above class and above money and yet these same folks who are so above it all have merely done whatever they can to insulate themselves from, "them." And if to the person above who thinks, "them," is the folks too ignorant to want the best for their kids, that is just misinformed. All parents want the best for their children. So if it seems funky and cool to live in an area, and then you send your children to a private school that is mainly one ethnicity or one economic class then what does that make the rest of the neighborhood...a backdrop for your children to consider how the other half lives perhaps? Get over it, you all live in a city with a lot of those other people. You are the other people to some of them as well.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 7:49 PM

7:49pm,

I don't have kids yet, but when I do, if I live somewhere without excellent public schools, such as Bed Stuy, I'll definitely send my kids to better private schools if I can afford it.

Unfortunately, the public school kids I come across every day on the subway act like animals. They swear constantly in front of old people and little kids, dress like "pimps and ho's", and have the manners of five years olds (both males and females alike).

Why would anybody with the money to afford private school send their kids to a school where they'd be surrounded by such losers? What benefit could there possibly be?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 8:23 PM

Excuse me. You live in a city with the largest number of public school children and you choose to define the entire system by the kids you see on your commute. I hope your future children are more open minded than you are. And what makes you think that private school kids have it so great. Let me tell you about all the pot they are smoking on the sidewalks by St. Anns when they should be in school. Those little freaks are not kids I would like my children to become either. But I would not lump all St. Anns kids in to that category, because that would be too easy, wouldn't it. I guess black culture has got you down huh, Imus?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 9:30 PM

Aren't there folks out there who actually made it to any of these open houses? It would be so nice if that information made it's way into this forum. I would love to know what people who went to look at these houses felt about them after they saw them. people really interested and able to make a purchase instead of all this inane babble! Yawn it is such a bore.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 10:03 PM

article about Clinton Hill from the New York Times.
LIVING IN | CLINTON HILL
Into the Big Leagues, With Prices to Match
By SUZANNE HAMLIN
Published: January 9, 2005

Originally a large parcel of land owned by the Dutch, Clinton Hill became a neighborhood in the 1800's, a rural retreat for some of New York's most prominent industrialists, who built their imposing mansions along Washington and Clinton Avenues. In 1875, Charles Pratt, an oil executive and philanthropist, built a mansion on Clinton Avenue, followed by one for each of his four sons as they married. Subsequent neighbors included the Bristols (of the Bristol-Myers company) and the Underwoods (of typewriter fame).

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2007 11:43 PM

OK, some people clearly need a refresher on official Brownstoner priorities.

Refusing to move to a neighborhood because of safety concerns: racist.

Moving to a neighborhood, but refusing to send your kids to the public school: perfectly fine. Preferred, even.

After all, working and volunteering to improve a public school takes time away from the truly important ways we improve out communities: by restoring our moldings and woodwork, which gives the less fortunate something to aspire to.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 7:09 AM

Washinton Street house was awesome -- I want to live there.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 10:04 AM

I will tell you as a realtor I moved out
of the rental biz inCG and Windsor TErrace. Why? Because every realtor that works in the area gets a visit from the local boys. They tell you that" you'll do fine as long as you remmmber who not to
rent to= get my drift". Look very carefully at the demographics,and tell methere isn't any in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill,or Boerum Hil.
They came to my office and told my assistant the same,wouldn't have said it
to me, I'm black. Heard the same story from many other realtors who were honest
enough to talk about these nasty nabes.
So, I will tell you that racism is alive and well in downtown Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Heights, the nicest of these neighborhoods, had the problem years ago
and corrected the problem, after the realtors were caught holding back properties,I know Corcoran just had a problem withswaying people of color out of the aforementioned areas.I'm sure it is business as usual if they are covering these areas. These new people moving in are worse because they pretend to be liberals.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 10:11 AM

i think its 2 much miney bcuz of the peeps that live ther

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 10:53 AM

Oh yes, things will get better because young white people with a job are role models for our kids. Spend money on books,
more teachers, hell fix the schools.Forty
percent, probably higher now, of black males don't finish eighth grade and drop out. But if you wear your R.L. polo shirt
and have a book under your arm, it will make it all better, you're a rold model.
Does anyone have a clue. Stop using the word ghetto to describe our neighborhood,would be a start.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 11:02 AM

I'll take the old Bed Stuy too! Wish there was a way to keep things the way they were...

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 11:52 AM

That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard GentrifyThis at 12:05. What are they going to do, alienate and harass their white homeowner neighbors because affluent black people would rather live in the suburbs or on the Upper West Side than in these neighborhoods?

Nice.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 6:26 PM

This might surprise you, but as far as I can see. there are more black millionaires in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill than wea;thy whites. Most black people in the area bought years ago, and just kept buying and buying. Most black professionals in the area own five, six houses, and buy more properties each year.Just not at the prices you gentlemen are talking
about. Does that make anyone happier. Those old mansions couldn't be
given away fifteen years ago, bought for a song.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 7, 2007 7:43 PM

Interesting, GentrifyThis at 7:56pm, that we see so much more passion and action from you about attacking and driving out white people, than we do about improving the public schools in those neighborhoods. Or driving out drug dealers. Because apparently the real problem is the whites moving in.

Also why don't we see an organized effort to encourage black homeowners to offer their homes at below market rates when they sell, to middle income black families in order to keep more black families in the neighborhood? But as we know when it comes time to sell they or their heirs are not complaining about getting a million + for their house. They just complain about who buys the house? Don't get it.

There are so many ways to combat what you see as the ill effects of gentrification, without playing the victim. Too bad that's the only role you and your buddies seem to know to play.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 8, 2007 10:16 AM