Co-op of the Day: 469 Eastern Parkway

bootiful. price is too high though.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 12:58 PM

$400k for a 1 bdrm in Crown Hghts. Keep chopping still has a ways to go

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 12:59 PM

is there any precedent for a $400K in this neighborhood? the location is great, i currently live nearby, but i don't recall this kind of prices even 3 years ago...

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:17 PM

I don't mind the layout too much, but the price is way out of bounds.

What's a realistic price? $250k?

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:24 PM

I saw the same: Remove bedroom walls.

But this space is big as it is. When bedroom walls are removed, you would have light from 2 windows coming into this space ( plus kitchen window). you would have about 20X20 sf and dining alcove in front of the kitchen. Pretty decnt size for the living room.

Remove those beautiful wood doors between former living and dining, close opening.
Reuse doors and surround. Build frame at the entrance from foyer to this new living room mirroring window angle.
2 windows and enough of the wall space for your furniture, bookshelves, etc.
You have big living room and two big bedrooms.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:28 PM

Lets check back on this in 3 mths time and see how much it has been chopped. I saw offer $250k

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:48 PM

"is there any precedent for a $400K in this neighborhood?"

There is precedent for 400k, except it's for houses in this neighborhood, not 1BR apts.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:17 PM

"One block off of Washington in CH/PH on Eastern Parkway may command $399K for a superlative 1 BR, but not yet here."

Except this is 4-5 blocks off of Washington.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:23 PM

You can get a 1 bedroom in Prime Park Slope for this amount.

I would not pay more than 225K for this place with that kind of maint.

With mortgage and maint, we are talking almost $3,000 a month. Who would pay such an absurd price to live here?

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:43 PM

I'd rather buy a studio in a nicer neighborhood.

For $3000 a month, you could rent in the West Village or Soho. You do realize that, right?

Absurd pricetag. Those people who paid anywhere near 400K for a 1 bedroom in Crown Heights are real suckers.

You could buy an entire house for 400K in that neighborhood 5 years ago. Maybe two of them.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:06 PM

I'm not of the "one should always buy, buy, buy" contingent, but it does seem to me that what one could buy something for 5 years ago is never really relevant to the decision of whether to buy something at a given price now.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:14 PM

In 2006, a 2 bedroom in the same building was featured as a co-op of the day: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2006/09/coop_of_the_day_12.php
If I remember correctly, it had an asking price in the mid to upper $400K. While people criticized the neighborhood, no one seemed to have an issue with the asking price. Has that much changed in 1 1/2 years? Or are two bedrooms really worth that much more than one?

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:22 PM

listing has it at 900 sq ft which works out to $433/ft. I think this is very much in line for that neighborhood.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:44 PM

I'd rather take this place. Smaller, but with a garden in a location 100 times better.

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=1189980

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:52 PM

Brownstoner:

(I hope that there aren't multiples of this post. I keep getting the message that your server doesn't open. Or don't you accept notes from Manhattan?)

I wouldn't know comparable co-op prices in Crown Heights, where I lived as a boy in the 1950s, but I can say that this building is typical of the middle-class apartment houses found throughout the neighborhood.

When you're young, places like this seem as big as palaces; when your older you recognize them for what they were (and are): better versions of ordinary tenements found throughout the city, a step up for aspiring middle-class people between World Wars I and II.

My family's building was very similar to this one: deep, cool, and pleasant to live in. I suspect that the unit posted here was carved from a much bigger apartment, probably after the Depression, because the two "formal" rooms at the front are disproportionately sized for a one-bedroom, and because the kitchen is in an odd spot for such a plan. Bourgeois apartments like this had bigger kitchens with pantries, dumbwaiters, and often breakfast nooks. In this case, the kitchen may have taken a good part of the bedroom, with a string of bedrooms (as many as three or four) following it.

Our apartment extended from street to courtyard, with a dining room and living room the same size and arrangement as the ones here. A long hall connected to three bedrooms and an intervening, old-fashioned bathroom with a claw-footed tub, pedestal sink, and black and white hexagonal tiles. Such an apartment was perfect for a family, with plenty of room to sprawl around and enough space for the kids to keep out of their parents' way.

If WontUBMyNeighor (2.58pm) is correct about prices, the middle class is returning to Crown Heights, although I hope it's not just single people buying one bedrooms but also those with kids who find bigger units in buildings that were designed and built for families. In their original configurations and with original details, these rival any new condo, even if you have to walk flights of stairs. (which we used as play spaces when it rained outside -- "Slinky," jacks, marbles, hide-and-seek).

Nostalgic On Park Avenue

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 4:37 PM

Fjorder please see listing at 3:52pm which is for a 1 bdrm in prime park slope with a garden for 399k. Now who is the foolish guest?

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 4:47 PM

I could find you 5 other listings in Prime Park Slope for 400K.

Which is why this apartment is so ridiculously overpriced.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 4:57 PM

pretty crappy 1-BR, it's half under ground so gets very little light the bedroom only has a door/window to an alley way for light and air.

Total square footage looks to be about 400 ft so close to $1000/ft to live underground. Sure the location is great and there's a garden but some people would prefer to have the room and light for their money.

It's really not an apples to apples comparison in any way.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 8:28 PM

I thought the walls should come down as well. A quicker fix could be to extend the kitchen to the wall of the dinning room to add storage and counter space. IF you have a dinning room, you don't need a breakfast table in the kitchen area, unless you incorporate some seating in the extended counter space.

Looks like they use either the dinning room or living room as a bedroom, as the bed can be seen behind the double doors.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:40 PM

That Park Slope building needs some serious work on the outside. I walk past there frequently. That maintenance doesn't include the work that will eventually have to be done to fix the outside.

And the place itself is a small underground railroad apartment (No pun intended!). No thanks.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:46 PM

Soo Many interior designers/visonaries for this apt. Can someone give me some idea for my unfinish cellar?

Posted by: guest at April 11, 2008 12:06 PM