Rentals of the Day: Some of Bklyn's Priciest

I like Dumbo, but it amazes me that someone would drop that much on a 2 bedroom rental cookie cutter apt with nice views.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 11:33 AM

That Tiffany Place 3br townhouse has been on the market for some time. I think if it were priced a bit lower, it woudl have gone quickly.

I don't think they'll get that for the rental. Whoever owns this place is pretty unrealistic.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 11:37 AM

Unless you're on a one- or two-year business relocation, who pays this kind of money on rent? Has the market really gotten so skewed that there are people who can afford a hundred grand a year in rent -- the cheaper DUMBO apartment, the mid-price of the five -- but somehow cannot afford to buy? (I am disregarding for now the folks that want to buy but just can't pull the trigger.)

I mean, I am currently renting because I think that at my price point, I will save more on a future purchase than I am losing by paying my (slightly below market) rent for now. But at the rents listed above, I don't see how there can be a comparable calculation.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 11:51 AM

You could rent the Grace Court Alley carriage house for 30 years and still only spend half of what the Columbia Heights carriage house is asking (yesterday's HOTD). That had a garage but this has a garden and windows.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:24 PM

my prediction: bed stuy building will be sold or in foreclosure inside of 6 months.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:34 PM

I could see someone renting a place this expensive and using part of it for a business and living in the rest and having a tax right off

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:37 PM

Please tell me that BS rental is nothing but a cruel joke. I would hate to think that somebody supposedly sane made a decision to put that on the market. I love Bedstuy, but I think someone is trying to collect a months rent and security and skip town before it becomes clear that they don't own the property. Now that would be worth a good laugh!

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:39 PM

Those rents all seem crazy to me. On the other hand, I did a quick calculation in my head a while back - having bought a house over a dozen years ago and watching the run up in prices I'm sitting on ~$1mil in equity. The opportunity cost of that sitting in the house now as opposed to sitting in a money market paying 4.5% is $3750 / month. Add my mortgage P&I and escrow payment and a rent north of 6k would be a reasonable trade-off.

If you buy you'll pay well over 6k/mo. per $1mil financed (plus the opportunity cost of your down payment plus taxes & insurance & maintenance minus some $ for tax deduction on interest), so the places in the $1mil to $2mil range that get talked about every day on this blog are comparable to the rents in this range. You would have to come up with a far more crazy rent, maybe $30k/mo., to compare costs with the $7.2mil for yesterday's HOTD.

Interesting article in the WSJ yesterday about the house price to rental ratio. In the US (and I'm sure in brownstone Brooklyn as well) there's a long way to go to return to historical norms.
Check the graph here...
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/12/housing-crisis.html

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:43 PM

12:43 - that is a interesting analysis that the owners should use for a "rent w/option to buy" for these properties. Than it will make sense to rent for one year with a portion of the rent held in escrow towards a down payment. and with the rent being comparable to your mortgage payment it gives you a good feel about whether you can handle a 6k payment. If you can't you have the option of moving with no damage to your credit. Otherwise, I agree with 12:39. A $13,000 payment to move into a BS rental is suspect.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 12:59 PM

There's a Cranberry Street townhouse listed on Corcoran - rent is 25K a month. Can somebody actually get it?

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 1:02 PM

Yep, crack is tasty!! It's OVER chuckleheads! This shit will sit on the market or the rest of the year. Real Estate is dead!!

The What

Someday this war is gonna end....

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 1:20 PM

That's exactly what I thought too, 12:24. For the "ultra rich" it actually makes more sense to pay $10,000 rent a month for the far superior carriage house on Grace Court Alley, than to buy yesterday's HOTD dismal dark carriage house with bad layout.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 1:44 PM

Cobble Hill house is also for sale.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 4:48 PM

So, are full broker fees expected on these high-priced rentals? Say, on that $25K Cranberry street house mentioned above?

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 4:50 PM

The Bed-Stuy house looks like a crack house. I think the What lives there.

The What is a crack whore.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 7:35 PM