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February 5, 2008
House of the Day: 81 Hall Street
You'd be hard-pressed to find a cheaper house in Clinton Hill than 81 Hall Street, a $699,000 blue light special between Myrtle and Park Avenues. The 2,300-square-foot two-family is obviously in dire need of some TLC (the only interior shot available is this one of the ceiling), but perhaps it'll make sense for some ambitious do-it-yourselfer. Alternatively, it's also significantly underbuilt, so there's definitely the opportunity for a more ambitious makeover with rooftop and/or rear addition. From what we can tell, the property's been in the same family for the last three decades or so. It's not exactly prime Clinton Hill, though, so it might take a little flexibility on the seller's part to get this one done.
81 Hall Street [Century 21] GMAP P*Shark
Photo by Scott Bintner for PropertyShark
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Comments
My favorite shot of their "view" is the panorama with "apocalypse" clouds descending over Brooklyn like "War of the Worlds" or something. Not every day that a broker offers up an omen with a listing!
Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 5, 2008 1:40 PM
Hmmm, do you really want to live right under the BQE? Location seems kind of crappy indeed...
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 1:42 PM
Brenda, you crack me up. You are right, that is a very Judgement Day cloud bank.
I know people are going to rag on it being spitting distance from the BQE, etc, etc, but thousands of people from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint live near the BQE, and have survived. Let's face it, if you don't have massive funds, where you can buy is going to have a downside. Not to say this place is good or bad, we can't tell, but for the right person, this could be just what they are looking for - a fixer-upper with a view of Manhattan, with rental income.
Someone's going to buy it, and do wonders with it. Good luck to them.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at February 5, 2008 1:57 PM
A modestly sized two family fixer upper in a non-prime part of Clinton Hill.
If there's any kind of weakness in NYC real estate in the coming few years--let alone a full-fledged bust--what''s going to happen to the value of a place like this?
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 2:00 PM
2pm - no one knows, though I've heard quality properties in prime parts of the city will hold up much better than crappy properties in fringe areas. But do the 2 types of markets intersect? Again, hard to say - is the buyer of this house a first time buyer stretching for a house, or someone who sold a nicer apt in better area to upgrade? I suspect that the properties that will suffer the most will be those for first-time buyers that are smaller and thus not places you'd want to live a long time. First-time buyers looking for a place that may outgrown in 4-5 years may opt to rent, but families who need bigger places in better areas (with good school zones, for example) will probably still be willing to pay more for a place if they know they can ride it for a longer horizon.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 2:20 PM
Think tulips, 2:00.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 2:21 PM
2:20: Well, say prices fall to where they were in 2003. In 2003 I bought a fixer-upper this size in lower Park Slope, for $150,000 less. For $150,000 more, I could have bought a fixer-upper this size in the heart of Park Slope.
Point being, IF prices drop, everything down the chain of desirability will fall that much more, as more and more houses that are cheaper and cheaper become available in more-competitive areas.
(I'm not trying to know this part of Clinton Hill, which I don't know all that well. You could make the same comparison using a lot of different neighborhoods--the same principle applies.)
I guess I'm just thinking, unless I were looking to stay somewhere for a VERY long time (10 years or more), I'd think twice about this right now.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 2:31 PM
in 2003 150000 lucky you!
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 3:08 PM
Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and some other neihborhoods emerged from the last slump as better neighborhoods- presumably because they got even cheaper, and people bought there and had money to renovate. Yes Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights got more expensive, but prior to the 90s, Clinton Hill 'prime' wasn't even comparable. Fort Greene was still very up and coming. 5th ave and non prime center slope were not nice. people continued to move to these places all through the last slump, and it really cemented the neighborhoods. (And in Park Slope's case, even moved the desirable part of the hood from 7th to 5th.)
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 3:41 PM
$150,000 less than the Clinton Hill house, so $550,000
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 3:59 PM
i'll offer 400k
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 4:03 PM
2:31 -- I call bullshit -- no chance you got anything in South Slope for anything approaching $150K in 2003. An empty lot in Gowanus would have cost 2X that
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 4:15 PM
70k, and that's my final offer.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 4:26 PM
They didn't say the price was 150k
they said 150k LESS.
reading is fun-da-mental!!
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 4:39 PM
this block is actually kind of cute! the street's block here oddly is 2-way but only a single-lane. It is a great shortcut though (instead of Washington Ave) from Park Avenue as there are no traffic lights on Hall Street all the way to Lafayette. Also not to be overlooked is the reasonable parking garage on this block, which is great for convertibles or precious cars or for me when my window was bashed in and they let me use a spot for only 4 days instead of a month.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 4:58 PM
Useless blog.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 5:07 PM
Uh, please don't drive north on Hall Street. It isn't two way! (I think the writer may be thinking of Waverly! That's where the garage is.). But I agree, the block has a certain South Brooklyn charm to it - complete with a federal drug bust of a long-time Italian-American resident a while back.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at February 5, 2008 5:17 PM
I'm looking up alternate definitions of "charm." Hmmm, the antonym makes sense. It must be time for a new thesaurus.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 5:27 PM
ugly house in non-prime area of fringe neighborhood.
500K in a year.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 5:42 PM
That block of Hall is actually pretty good in its way. The houses were not built as grandly as those a couple blocks south, and yes, obviously, many of them are covered in vinyl or tarpaper. But there are trees, there's parking, you're right next to tons of nice stores and restaurants on Myrtle, half a block from the not-great-but-not-terrible Associated grocery, and you're paying HALF what you'd pay for a brownstone just a little closer to Pratt. BQE is close, but you're not going to hear it or live under it, so who cares? I mean, whaddya expect for a single family home in Bklyn?
Posted by: Rehab at February 5, 2008 5:45 PM
"I mean, whaddya expect for a single family home in Bklyn?"
I expect houses like this to be selling for half this price within three years. That's what I expect.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 5:56 PM
HOD,.. eeew!. The seller should be the one paying someone to take it off their hands. If they pay me I still wouldn't move my family there.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 6:25 PM
Half this price? In NYC? Hmmm.
I don't know who you are 6:25, but perhaps you aren't the target for this sale. No one I know can afford 1 million dollars for a house. This is doable, if not as pornographic as many HOD's. It is houses like this and streets like this which are accessible to many "middle class" New Yorkers hoping to get a toehold in this city. With some imagination, maybe you can even make it ineresting - the block has some realy funky (in a good way) houses rehabbed by artists years ago.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at February 5, 2008 6:39 PM
Yes.
Half this price in NYC.
Like I am sure it cost a few years ago before "irrational exuberance" lifted all boats including the leakiest like this.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 8:27 PM
This type of housing stock should not be preserved. It should be replaced. It was cheaply built in the first place with no expectation that it would last more than fifty or so years.
You can spend tens of thousands renovating and upgrading and then watch it burn to the ground in fifteen minutes due to the open stud construction and a hundred years worth of flamable dust and cellulose powder packed between every joist and every piece of lath.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 8:41 PM
You could say the same thing about all the tenement apartment buildings in East Village and Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen. hard to see the economics of it.
And 8:27 I don't disagree it "should be" cheaper in some sort of absolute sense, but I don't see it...
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at February 5, 2008 10:10 PM
Putnamedenizen:
According to Propertyshark, a house of the same size at 85 Hall sold in 2007 for $400k, which is just slightly over half the asking price of this place.
See it now?
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 10:59 PM
You may be right, 8:41, but amazingly enough, the house and many like it are still standing. Perhaps it's because they aren't as cheaply built as you say. Over 100 years plus and counting.
Bet one of those suburban wood frame houses in those new developments won't last half that long, and also could go up in a puff of smoke due to the flammable materials there, too.
OK, it's not the Pfizer Mansion, and in a better world, it wouldn't cost as much. But in today's market, and with the housing stock available, it looks like a good buy for someone with some imagination and more modest means.
Posted by: guest at February 5, 2008 11:30 PM
$699k is a good buy when a house of the same size on the same block sold for $400k less than a year ago?
Posted by: guest at February 6, 2008 12:22 AM
Can't tell without floorplans what this should sell at.
If its really 2300 sq ft then its $300 per sq ft which is pretty cheap for livable space. The condos in the area are all still trying to get $700 per sq ft.
Posted by: guest at February 6, 2008 10:45 AM
everything about this building says: below poverty line.
Posted by: guest at February 6, 2008 11:03 AM
The follow-up:
According to ACRIS documents, this property sold for $535,000 at the end of February.
Posted by: mdmh at September 11, 2008 7:36 PM
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