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July 15, 2008

House of the Day: 219 Washington Avenue

219-Washington-Avenue-0708.jpg
219-Washington-interior-0708.jpgThe owner of 219 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill has been trying to sell for over a year now, tweaking the price a number of times in the process to no avail. It started at $2,275,000 at the beginning of May 2007, getting bumped to $2,375,000 and then $2,395,000 within the first week; by the end of the month, the listing had been pulled, according to StreetEasy. It reemerged with Corcoran again in February at a pie-in-the-sky $2,835,000 in February of this year, before getting knocked back down to $2,495,000 in March. Later in the spring, it was pulled again. Brown Harris Stevens brought it back to market last week at $2,495,000. Seems to us that you gotta have a fifth story to get this price on Washington Avenue in this market, but we could be wrong.
219 Washington Avenue [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP
Open House Picks 4/4/08 [Brownstoner] P*Shark




Posted by Brownstoner at 1:13 PM | Comments (47)
Categories: Clinton Hill, HOTD

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Comments

We'll see I guess. Looks beautiful inside.

This same broker had the listing for the place on Clinton where the owner/developer ripped out the garden floor, front garden and stone wall to put in a curb cut and front yard driveway/garage. I don't think that place is selling, though it's not surprising to me. I had a look at the place before the owner gutted the ground floor and ripped out the front wall/garden area and said I thought it would attract more buyers if it was left intact with that additional floor of living space. She said the owner didn't think so. We'll see if it sells for a good price now...

Posted by: 1842 at July 15, 2008 1:31 PM

I'm liking this far more than yesterday's HOTD...now that's a kitchen!!! I like the open space on the top floor for bowling too.

What's with the constantly raising the price after no offers??? Dyslexia maybe? Too expensive for that hood by about $695,000 at the current $2.495 MM price.

Will they raise the price again next week?

What's this street like ?

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 15, 2008 1:35 PM

They want $200K+ a year after it was first listed. I don't think so. They should go back to the original asking price and work down from there.

Posted by: 11233 at July 15, 2008 1:38 PM

Why would they go back to the original listing price and work down from that. That would make TOO MUCH sense!!!!

Posted by: Smatchums at July 15, 2008 1:46 PM

From the photos those are nice windows that they used in the front.

That house to the right with the crappy fence isn't a great addition!! Again, I'd like to see this whole street. Don't want to own the nicest house on the block in a real estate environment where nothing else is selling!!!

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 15, 2008 1:50 PM

The house is between Willoughby and Myrtle--not the nicest stretch of Washington, but not bad, and a bit of a walk to the C train (the G is a little closer).

It's a heck of a lot of money for only two full baths in the triplex, and my pet peeve, no powder room on the parlor floor.

Posted by: tinarina at July 15, 2008 1:55 PM

Way overpriced, but very sweet.

Posted by: Brooklynnative at July 15, 2008 1:56 PM

They have done up the interior beautifully and in classic high-WASP taste although oddly there is no formal dining room. The dining table is in the kitchen, which is fine but a little inconsistent with the formal decor. A powder room would have been nice too. The garden looks terrific.
The lower level apartment can help bring in some income although if you want to buy a 2.4 million dollar house, I don't know how much you should rely on rental income.
I like Washington Street for the most part. A nice mix of houses and vintage apartment buildings. The sellers have prepped the place well to sell. Let's hope they get a good price and that banks keep writing mortgages.

Posted by: sam at July 15, 2008 2:03 PM

anything near murdle should not go for anywhere near 2 million. i continue to believe we won't hit bottom until we correct to 2000 prices...

Posted by: travy at July 15, 2008 2:13 PM

can someone explain the rules about turning the garden-level apt into a rental? When is it a "basement" and when is it a "garden apartment?" I'm assuming it has something to do with light, acess, etc.

Posted by: Rookie at July 15, 2008 2:14 PM

This house was on the Clinton Hill Tour a few years ago, one of the best ones on it. The master BR on the top floor was gorgeous but w/o enough storage (an easy fix though). The den off the BR had spectacular views of lower Manhattan from the large plate glass window there. Definitely worth a looksee now that it has its own parking (that was not done yet at the time of the tour IIRC) which must add quite a bit to the worth of the house.

Posted by: watching MREB with popcorn at July 15, 2008 2:16 PM

Garden level is 1-2 steps below grade. This building also has a basement. Not sure why they didn't include it but the garden level floorplan shows an access door to the basement and the "break" in the staircase indicates such as well.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 15, 2008 2:17 PM

2:16...did they do a curb cut in the front of the house? The listing doesn't say anything about it and I believe that car parked to the left is on another property....which is an eyesore as well to have that car there and the place on the right.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 15, 2008 2:21 PM

the bottom is neighborhoods like CH is hard to guess. It's easy to say it will revert to 2000, but the neighborhood has improved drastically since then (roving gangs of children aside).

The price of houses in the neighborhood should reflect the fact that there are lots of restaurants, etc, that werent there in 2000.

Posted by: slick at July 15, 2008 2:28 PM

Looks nice especially the poured concrete--I sure wish I had done the same with my kitchen reno. Still, that's a lot of cash for that location with convenient access only to the G. I'll bet they wish they had sold in 2007. I wonder what happened. Did they get enough offers over asking that they kept bumping up? Or do they just need to lay off the crack pipe?

Posted by: FatLenny at July 15, 2008 2:34 PM

uh, it's the roving gangs of children that have always been the problem.

Posted by: travy at July 15, 2008 2:35 PM

Officially (as in, when filing with the DOB, etc). A basement is anything below grade, so a garden 1 or 2 steps down is actually a basement. but no one would call it that in selling a house so they call it the garden floor/ garden apartment. Below that is the cellar. Code regulations about what constitute legal living space (bedrooms, etc) include needing sufficient light and air. You can turn any basement into liveable space with a 5' light well in front of it, which is much less than typical garden floors have.

Posted by: 11216 at July 15, 2008 2:38 PM

@daveinbedstuy
Thanks. Odd that it wouldn't be in the floorplan. You'd think that would be a bonus for the owner or renter.

Posted by: Rookie at July 15, 2008 2:38 PM

Would be nice if I could spend 2.4 MILLION but I can't. Evin if I could I would want more for my buck. It is 2 blocks from the G train or 8 from the C but if I could afford 2.4 I don't think I would be ridin the rails. It is a nice 'hood. And it's Washington Avenue not Street as sam called it. Washington Street is in Dumbo. All the luck to them.

Posted by: BklynPEZ at July 15, 2008 2:38 PM

"roving gangs of children."??

You make it sound like a scene from Children Of The Corn.

Posted by: Rookie at July 15, 2008 2:41 PM

With regard to the roving packs of disadvantaged youth, foot traffic from la policia has increased 100 percent lately in my neck of CH. I'm a few blocks from Pratt, and it's a non-stop parade of rookies, day in and day out. Saw a guy get a ticket for riding his bike on the sidewalk the other day, so they're making it pay somehow.

For that kind of bank, I'd prefer Clinton Ave, frankly.

Posted by: Desi at July 15, 2008 2:41 PM

That is a good point slick. I don't know what it was like in 2000 but it is a really lovely place to dine in, walk in and jog around now.
Such a reduction would also mean, from what I understand, prices at least halving. I can't see that happening in CH without it happening elsewhere also which I guess it could ...but we wont have any banking system left if it does.

Posted by: Aussie at July 15, 2008 2:43 PM

i think the house is beautiful. definetly don't like the fact that there is no formal dining room and really only 2 bedrooms. but i guess that's an easy fix.

Posted by: bkny at July 15, 2008 3:36 PM

All this knocking on the G train is a bit silly. I take it every day and my commute from Clinton and Lafayette to Chelsea takes 30 mins very consistently. Compares very favorably with the commutes of the people I know in Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens. The G gets an undeserved bad rap.

Posted by: wasder at July 15, 2008 3:37 PM

I think that "basement apartment" became "garden apartment" when the average rent started to go up past $500 a month. A basement and a garden level is the same thing in most brownstones. It is the level one enters from under the stoop. The basement. Below that, is the cellar. Many old houses have cellars with dirt floors or with a thin slab of concrete poured over the dirt. This level is not habitable except by some developers who dig out a pit in the back yard and market it as a sort of rec room/mausoleum floor. Traditionally, the first floor was the floor entered from atop the stoop, lately as rents are getting even more ridiculous, I detect a trend to call the basement the "first floor" and the cellar "the basement". It's real estate, enjoy!

Posted by: sam at July 15, 2008 3:57 PM

Wasder, you are insane. Do you ever take the train on the weekend or at night?
Plan on it taking an hour, plus. The G train is a nightmare.
Just because the F train also stinks doesn't make your lousy train any better.

Posted by: ontheparkway at July 15, 2008 4:16 PM

Realtor-speak: How is that 21'? It's no wider than 18-19 if you add up the floorplan dimensions.

The deck is "large?"

And unless you're planning a bowling party, how do you use a 11.5 x 45' bedroom? For that price, better to have another bedroom.

Posted by: cmu at July 15, 2008 4:36 PM

are people sure they're in CH when referring to all the great restaurants and amenities, or FG? i've looked for places in CH, so have no hate towards it, but it's far from a great neighborhood full 'o amenities/restaurants/etc.

as for the G train, for what its worth: http://www.hopstop.com/?action=rate

Posted by: goldie at July 15, 2008 4:36 PM

If I had an 11.5 x 45' master bedroom floor, I think I'd find a way to use it just fine -- bed in the middle, a study/library area on one end, maybe a treadmill on the other. Or, you can put up a wall and divide it. Doesn't seem like a huge problem.

Posted by: Park Sloper at July 15, 2008 4:44 PM

I see ductwork soffits in the kitchen photos...Central A/C??!!! Looking forward to see how they did the registers in the parlour room.

On the formal DR issue...I wanted my back room to be informal kitchen/TV room and still wanted a formal dining "area". The living room is about as long as this one...29' and leaves more than enough room for a formal seating area in front at the fireplace and room for a formal round dining table to be placed closer to the kitchen...expandable with leaves for 6-8 people. These rooms are huge.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 15, 2008 4:50 PM

Ontheparkway--of course I take the G train on weekends. Its the primary train that I take from my neighborhood regardless of the day of the week. When they are doing weekend track work your assessment is accurate but that doesn't happen all that often. At which point the G train is much like every other train in the system. I am not trying to claim that it is a superior train line but to hear most people on this blog talk about it you would think that the G train is useless and that is certainly not the case.

Posted by: wasder at July 15, 2008 5:02 PM

Goldie---yes you are correct that most of the restaurants people cite as amenities are in Fort Greene but it is not as if there is some magic line of demarcation between the neighborhoods. The restaurants on DeKalb are a 5 minute walk from this house on Washington. The point being FG and CH are conjoined neighborhoods that function essentially as one.

Posted by: wasder at July 15, 2008 5:04 PM

Word up Wasder! The G train is not some sort of MTA leper train! In fact, I have waited for the L many nights much longer than my transfer for the G (and in the morning, at least you can get on a train and not wait for 2 trains just to get a space)! It's not the best train but there's no reason to move out of CH because of it!

Posted by: BSandCHBorderBaby at July 15, 2008 5:12 PM

BS/CH--thanks. There seems to be some kind of "bash the G train" memo going around here on the interwebs. I find it to be user friendly and quite convenient given how much I go to visit friends in either Williamsburg or Cobble.

Posted by: wasder at July 15, 2008 5:16 PM

wow, only my third registered post and already censored. i guess i wasn't shilling for the property hard enough. :^(

Posted by: travy at July 15, 2008 5:40 PM

Not to start a subway war, but every other train except the G actually goes to Manhattan.
It is definitely a good reason not to move to a nabe -- and I love Clinton Hill.

Posted by: ontheparkway at July 15, 2008 6:46 PM

I only take the subways rarely and never in summer and certainly never on weekends, what do the subways have to do with properties like these?
Is it true that the G train does not go into Manhattan? What's the point?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 7:52 PM

Thank you - Gary Cooper. You said it! and yes the G does not go to Manhattan. I am not in the price range for this house but I only take the subway, one way to work. Walk, cab or get a ride home. Weekends never on the subway. I so do not think the G is a factor for this buyer.

Posted by: bkny at July 15, 2008 8:06 PM

Call me Gary.
Hey don't get me wrong, I love the subways, I think everyone should use them -it leaves more room for me and the BMW above ground, y'know?
zoom zoom zoom.....


Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 8:27 PM

We've looked at this house, and there is no parking. There is also the pesky problem of no powder room on the parlor floor and the fact that the garden and deck overlook a rather unattractive & tall housing development a block or two behind it. We also weren't crazy about the block and the distance to a Manhattan-bound subway.

That said, we called this the "happy house". We visited on a particularly sunny day and it was really cheery and lovely inside. The children's bedrooms were bright and adorable with a massive closet/play space in between, which had beautifully constructed built-in storage. The master bedroom, though long and seemingly narrow, didn't feel that way. It felt spacious and private and indulgent. The views of Manhattan that they carved into the Northwest walls were to die for.

Though this block and neighborhood are probably not for us and go beyond our "druthers" in terms of being beyond our maximum walk to the subways and stores, this house is quite nice.

And again, the idea that anyone buying in this price point fits some modern day version of the Gatsby's - i.e. kitchen's being unimportant due to their being the purview of the help alone, and subway access being unimportant because, hell, such people would have a driver on hand, or at the very least would take cabs everywhere - is simply incorrect.

Honest.

Posted by: Nokilissa at July 15, 2008 9:11 PM

Noklissa,
Be honest, you loved the house, it had the toil-in kitchen your heart desires, why didn't you buy it? ...really?
as I recall, the Gatsby reference was made in connection with the much more expensive house, a mansion really, in Park Slope. Was that the place you really want but can't afford?
Why is poor little Washington Avenue so not in keeping with your druthers? You can tell us.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 9:20 PM

Gary--

For many, subway access to Manhattan is key. Unless you're going to work at 6 am and returning at a similar ungodly hour, it's faster, plain and simple.

And I agree with Nokilissa on the pesky problem of no powder room on the parlor floor. Based on the floorplan, it's also hard to imagine a place to put one. As it looks now, you'd have to direct guests to the master bath, which is a total drag.

Posted by: tinarina at July 15, 2008 9:39 PM

I think I already did, Mister Cooper. It was a stretch already, and we almost didn't even go in because of its location. Maybe it was the roving bands of marauding teens that turned us off of poor little Washington Avenue. Kidding, kidding.

We are looking in Fort Greene proper and the North Slope. (Well, I'm not sure how seriously we're looking anymore given the current state of the market and given we must actually sell our place first).

Nothing "whispered in confidence" to share really.

And frankly, the house on second is not our pie in sky either because it too is a wee bit far from the subways. That and my husband isn't crazy about Park Slope. And it is over priced by a fair bit. Opinion only, of course.

Posted by: Nokilissa at July 15, 2008 9:41 PM

You would be very foolish to dismiss a neighborhood based on the fact that its on the G train. As I said, the length of my day in day out commute is very favorable compared to the same commute from other neighborhoods. The G train does in fact not go to Manhattan but it connects many of Brooklyns best neighborhoods together and it enables me to get to my office from either direction (G to Hoyt, change to A or G the other way to Metropolitan and change to the L). But to each his own. It works well for me and that is what matters for me.

Posted by: wasder at July 15, 2008 10:43 PM

As a long time CH resident with many of those years as a Manhattan-centric commuter, taking the G to the L, or the G to the A or the G to the F are all really workable combinations. Then there is the A at Clinton/Washington, which just zips you right up to the UWS in minutes. I know that to those that have not experienced the commute on a day to day basis that it seems formidable, and I will always remember the intense relief I felt on my first day of commuting to work from CH, but believe me, in the whole scheme of things, it is very workable.

Posted by: Schultz at July 15, 2008 11:41 PM

I live in CH and commute to downtown now. I'm on the C train (get it at Clinton Washington). With my walk and wait, door to door in maybe 25 minutes. Midtown takes a good 40 minutes. If you're closer to the G, it's two stops to Hoyt where you can pick up the A. Commuting is fine for me, llike Schultz, especially if you're working in downtown Manhattan. In fact, unless you live close to downtown Manhattan, commuting is generally faster from where I am in Clinton Hill than it is for most of my colleagues in Manhattan.

Posted by: 1842 at July 16, 2008 12:32 PM

Yay! Fellow G train defenders. I also am a fairly quick walk to the C at Clinton/Washington but have found that taking the G to Hoyt is a faster way of getting to the A/C line. What cracks me up is that people spend time on blogs insulting train lines.

Posted by: wasder at July 16, 2008 1:35 PM

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