Residential Sales in Brooklyn

almost a million dollars for a 6 bedroom house that only has one bathroom?!? wow

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 11:51 AM

Most those Ditmas/Midwood houses only have one bathroom. To install a full bath not just powder room, you have to take one of the bedrooms and make it a bathroom. You also should combine bedrooms in these houses to make a Master BR because the rooms are so small. I'd think of it as a 4BR house for these reasons.

Nice big porch, but what a plain little house. I'll sound like a hater but I feel compelled to say, there are so few truly special houses in Ditmas/Midwood. In any of the Victorian neighborhoods I've lived in or known, these neighborhoods' houses would pale in comparison. With a few exceptions of course.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 12:07 PM

I totally disagree with 12:07...I find Ditmas to be a beautiful area and a real change from the standard NYC neighborhoods. Many of those houses are truly stunning. For me, the hood' really stands out...and, no, I don't live there (yet?).

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 12:28 PM

I'm shocked that they were even able to unload that Victorian--I mean, it has a driveway and a garage, two major value killers!

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 12:53 PM

I think it just depends on how familiar you are with Victorian architecture. I used to live in a stunning Queen Anne house with super high ceilings, huge tall doors and giant windows, carved gingerbread details on the exterior and interior both. So I'm less easily impressed I guess! I think the best examples of Victorian woodframe and brick houses in New York are upstate along the Hudson Valley. NYC doesn't have much that's all that special. The best Victorian houses in NYC are the brownstones, not woodframe. Whether in prime Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 12:54 PM

Another value killer is a completely inadequate subway line.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 12:55 PM

This house is not particularly distinctive, architechturally speaking, but to tar the whole Victorian Flatbush neighborhood, is just misinformed. There are several Victorian Flatbush websites out there, with plenty of photos, that would seriously challenge 12:54's claims. There is very little gingerbread in Flatbush because it is not "high Victorian." Much of it is Colonial Revival (Ditmas Park proper), and transitional (Victorian meets arts and crafts). Queen Annes are actually the exception. Prospect Park South is another animal altogether. But there are equally arechitectural impressive homes on what were once "showcase" streets, such as Bedford in South Midwood, Ocean Avenue in Ditmas Proper, Albemarle, or course in PPS, and Avenue H in Fiske Terrace. That Tudor on Avenue H is one hell of a house.

BTW, this house needed complete gut reno, had limited original detail, and no kitchen... That's why it sold for under a million. Houses with more interesting architecture, loads of detail and recent renos sell for a whole lot more.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 1:32 PM

This house is not particularly distinctive, architechturally speaking, but to tar the whole Victorian Flatbush neighborhood, is just misinformed. There are several Victorian Flatbush websites out there, with plenty of photos, that would seriously challenge 12:54's claims. There is very little gingerbread in Flatbush because it is not "high Victorian." Much of it is Colonial Revival (Ditmas Park proper), and transitional (Victorian meets arts and crafts). Queen Annes are actually the exception. Prospect Park South is another animal altogether. But there are equally arechitectural impressive homes on what were once "showcase" streets, such as Bedford in South Midwood, Ocean Avenue in Ditmas Proper, Albemarle, or course in PPS, and Avenue H in Fiske Terrace. That Tudor on Avenue H is one hell of a house.

BTW, this house needed complete gut reno, had limited original detail, and no kitchen... That's why it sold for under a million. Houses with more interesting architecture, loads of detail and recent renos sell for a whole lot more.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 1:35 PM

Also, it is completely innacurate to say that Flatbush homes originally only had one bathroom. There is almost always (an original) full bathroom on the second and third floors.

It is true that the first floors generally lacked powder rooms. Personally, I have been in over one hundred homes in Victorian Flatbush, and I have never seen one that did not already have a powder room already installed on the first floor. Usually it's a former butler's pantry, sometimes a former walk in closet.

If you want a master suite, then you are looking at sacrificing a bedroom. Sometimes it makes sense to knock to small bedrooms together to make a master suite. However, I have been in plenty of homes where the master bedroom is more substantial than any original brownstown configuration I've ever known.

There are a few Queens nabes and Staten Island enclaves that have a similar feel to Victorian Flatbush. Personally, I love them all and it makes me physically ill to see developers swoop in and destroy them... Oh, is that you by any chance 12:54? I doubt it, but you never know.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 1:42 PM

Sorry, I wouldn't live on the F in ANY neighborhood, 1:22pm. I think when people complain about inadequate subways it's any and all of the neighborhoods on the F line they're talking about. That or the R.

Where we live in Brooklyn, we are on 2 different express trains to Manhattan. 20 minutes tops to get to Manhattan and the subway cars are not ever too crowded to get on the train. It's the wait for the trains that sometimes slows us down. But we'll blame the MTA for that. Some days there are a million trains and some days there's one every 15 minutes. It's irrational.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 3:17 PM

I don't know why you are all talking about the F line, the victorian house is on the Q/B.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 3:31 PM

The Q/B is great. Might be the best subway line in Brooklyn. The Q/B does not make too many stops in Brooklyn like the 2/3 does. The N is good but scarce.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 3:38 PM

Of course this sold back in November, before all the gloom and doom stuff had really hit.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 3:52 PM

Interesting note on the new home sales data released today:

"Regionally, the northeast is the least important part of the country for new home sales, but it is also the strongest. There were 65,000 new homes sold in that region last year, up 3 percent from 2006. But the other three regions were all down at least 26 percent, with the west (California, there you go) off the most at 32%."

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 4:02 PM

4:02 - Interesting perhaps, but hardly applicable to this thread about a Victorian home.

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 4:55 PM

This isn't a thread about a Victorian home, 4:55.

It is a thread on residential sales in Brooklyn.

My post has as much to do with real estate sales in Brooklyn (which lies in the Northeast) than any of these asinine comments about subway trains nowhere near this Victorian house (one of three being profiled, btw).

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 5:25 PM

This is a little off topic...But, can someone estimate what we should expect to offer for a 4-floor "regular" townhouse in prime Fort Greene that needs a real reno? Basically, by “prime” I mean “prime commuting walking distance and decent shopping”--anything south of DeKalb and west of, say, Clermont. By "real reno" I mean, new everything like windows, electric, heat/hot water systems, bathrooms and kitchens but the bones are decent with some details still intact…maybe new interior woodwork around windows and doors.

We have looked at a couple of places and don't want (can’t afford) the really big houses like on South Portland and the park. And we don’t like the smaller ones on Carlton between Greene and Layette…saw one and its “garden” floor was really only a cellar with windows. We’re more in the market for an in-between sized brick rowhouse like on Lafayette or something.

The backyards in most of FG are not that deep like they are in Prospect Heights but really, it is more the convenience to all the trains in FG and the feel of the neighborhood we like. Truth is, we live here now and don't want to leave.

Are all prices in prime FG near the trains well north of 1.6 even for places that, frankly, need a real reno?

Also, what’s the opinion out there (aside from “After AY…”). Is it worth dropping 1.75 to 2m on a basic double-duplex or owner-duplex-plus-two-rentals in prime FG? Is the nabe going to remain “golden” or at least stable through this downturn?

Feedback please. Thanks!

Posted by: guest at January 28, 2008 7:43 PM

Actually 5:25, the article you posted is about NEW home sales, so it is indeed OFF-TOPIC.

Nice pumping attempt though.

Not at all transparent.

Posted by: guest at January 29, 2008 1:04 AM