Last Week's Biggest Sales: Slope Supreme

I think you have left and right(pics) mixed up.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:08 AM

another good example of established prime neighborhoods doing just fine. fringe neighborhoods might be week but the slope is the slope.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:14 AM

I want to know whos buying these places.

IM POOR MOFUCKA

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:21 AM

The pictures are correct.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:33 AM

Gabby, the Joralemon St house was for sale for a very long time by one of your regular advertisers, Kevin Carberry, for just under $3m. It's still on his site.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:35 AM

I loved 130 Lincoln!!! and find it interesting that it came down in price when 128 Lincoln sold for more and 106 Lincoln is still prices so high....the2nd street house is also lovely. Guess some sellers are just holding out for an uneducated buyer and some sellers are facing facts and really interested in selling...interesting times!

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 1:05 PM

was there a war?

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 1:06 PM

These sales show that the Slope is still strong, but softening. Used to be, things sold at or above ask, but now buyers are requiring price reductions unless things are priced reasonably to begin with. So, sellers should not fear selling but they must be realistic in their pricing strategies. 2nd Street is super-prime slope, and a big house, but 3.2 won't fly. Still, 2.8 is a lot of donuts. But, prices are certainly not going up anymore, if anything, they are dropping a bit, but not crashing.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 1:29 PM

If I were a seller, I'd sell NOW, while the getting's good, and ask a realistic price. I bet the Lincoln Place house seller made a plenty big profit, and would have even if it had sold for 2mil. C'mon sellers, give it up, go ahead and sell, and don't be scared - you'll still make far more than what you paid - which might not be the case if you wait another year, when all the economic news is so bad...

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 1:37 PM

"No Asshat! I will let the chairman of the Federal Reserve say it!"

ROTFLMMFAO!!!

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 2:11 PM

Three Slope houses, and all of them, sold BELOW ask. And so the decline begins, not with a bang but a whimper.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 2:25 PM

Whoa hoe hoe Nelly!

Park slope is the shiznet for realz!

Naysayers all sellers add a little elbow room for the hagglers it's part of the game.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 3:06 PM

Please, those P.S. homes sold for quite heathly prices - the asks were just a tad outrageous! (Not making any predictions on the market, just sayin...)

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 4:28 PM

When a house sells above asking price, it is the sign of a booming market.

When a house sells below ask, the asking price was obviously too high, and the market is also booming.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 4:57 PM

When prices are lower than comps, the condition was worse and the market is booming.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 5:16 PM

whether the seller listed the house at 3.2 and sold for 2.8 or....listed for 2.6 leading to a bidding war reaching 2.8, the fact remains the same. the house sold for 2.8!
park slope prices seem to continue going up, although at a slower rate.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 5:34 PM

I am stunned that the Joralemon St house sold for that much. It was a wreck! And small. God, there IS a sucker born every minute!

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 6:13 PM

The seller of 398 Bergen Street bought 22 Polhemus. I remember her from the open house I attended for 398 Bergen.

22 Polhemus was a Warren Lewis listing. The asking price was $2 million and it was an estate sale. The house was a 1-family and had not been touched since the 1890s. Amazing, truly amazing. Every detail was intact. I hope the new owner restores it instead of gutting it. I'm not too hopeful.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 6:39 PM

Also, pretty sure that the person who bought Polhemus and sold Bergen is a professional flipper, who, I've been told, does not do the best quality work. Will have to wait and see when Polhemus hits the market in a year or two.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 6:45 PM

Inventory is low compared to interested buyers. But these buyers must have lots of cash - the lending isn't there. So wealthy people putting there money in smart places.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 8:04 PM

THe house on 3rd street between 7th and 8th with the outrageously campy decor just sold for 3.75 mill.

The limestone on the park block of 1st street just sold this spring for 3.6 mill.

Whoever got this house on 2nd street got a pretty good deal in other words -- but I haven't seen any of the houses so I don't know how they really compare.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 8:09 PM

Some of you are really quite ignorant.

This is not about being a bull or a bear, but you judge price appreciation by the price of the house the last time it sold, NOT by the asking price.

Some of these homes show 600-700k appreciation since 2005. The year most people on this blog say was the top of the market.

That is clearly not the case, and while the rest of the country suffers from severe losses on properties bought in 2005, Park Slope (and other areas) are still seeing incredible appreciation.

Think about that. 600K in 3 years. For doing nothing. The numbers you need to be looking at are what these places sold for in 2004, 2005 and what they are selling for today.

As long as today's numbers are higher (in many of these cases, SIGNIFICANTLY higher, all is fine.

Think about how much prices would have to drop for these brownstones to sell for less than what they were paid just a few short years ago.

I'm not sure I see them falling even back to 2005/6 levels. It's possible, but so far, it doesn't seem to be happening here.

These prices are INCREDIBLE!

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 8:46 PM

It's true, there has been incredible appreciation the last few years so even a drop to 2005-6 prices would not hurt that many people - tons of people in Bklyn, including PS, bought much earlier so would still make a hefty profit. That said, many places are now selling well under ask - a sign that the market is indeed softening, but hopefully this will mean sellers will just price more realistically, which will increase overall transactions - demand is there, but buyers are just reluctant to pay too much...

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 10:11 PM

8:09, which house are you talking about?

the one designed by im pei?

did it sell recently?

i agree that people getting a brownstone in a super prime area for less than 3 million are getting a relative bargain. the prices have gone in manhattan, even if prices dropped 50%, the price of a Brooklyn Brownstone would be cheaper.

As a Manahattan Brownstone owner, I find what's going on in Park Slope really impressive right now and it's by far my top choice in looking at a move to BK hopefully within the next year.

Anyone seen that limestone on 3rd asking over 4.1 million?

It intrigues me.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 10:22 PM

10:22 sounds like a broker. How on earth can you say 3 mil for a brownstone is a bargain? It really depends on size, condition, exact block, etc. There's a lot of variation in brownstones!!

10:08 - I think you meant March 2008 was the peak, the month that Bear Sterns went bust.

Park Slope has gone way up in price, but even it is softening a bit but sellers can still make huge profits if they bought before 2005. Even a 20% price decrease would not be so painful to most sellers, and is certainly a possibility, though a total crash seems unlikely, more like an overall weakening.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 10:44 PM

10:22 - the house that was billed as being designed by IM Pei was revealed to NOT have been designed by him - it was some kind of typo/misunderstanding. Also, that house has had it's price reduced since coming on market by several 100K. Really, it's silly to say any brownstone under 3 mil is a bargain - some are smallish (16' wide) so even 2 mil for such a house would be too expensive.

Posted by: guest at July 8, 2008 11:16 PM

Yes indeed no way around it. Prime NYC RE is still hot. Despite the adjusments needed for mortgage approvals.
I remember in 1992 being shocked at the 500k price tag for a Harlem Brownstone. Brooklyn is making great progess and I believe in our life time we will see 14 million dollar Brownstones in PS.

Father Time is Real Estate best friend.

Posted by: guest at July 9, 2008 12:02 AM

tulips are very intriguing.

Posted by: guest at July 9, 2008 12:03 AM

Father Time is also Real Estate's enemy - i.e. time a property lingers on a market, time that reveals prices going down (see just about everywhere in the nation, with NYC traditionally lagging behind). Of course, in long run, real estate recoups its value, but it may be a long time before that happens. NYC may be headed for several years of softening/stagnation, and possibly declines...

Posted by: guest at July 9, 2008 9:04 AM

you can't live inside a tulip.

unless you're alice in wonderland.

Posted by: guest at July 9, 2008 10:50 AM

real estate bubbles "pop" slowly -- the metaphor is wrong -- because buyers who overpaid can live in their tulips and, if they can make their mortgage payments, need not realize their losses. Most people prefer paper losses to cash ones, so a lot of that happens.

Similarly, all developers are optimists, so they convince themselves that if they can just hold on a little longer, the buyers will reappear. Cutting prices, in contrast, would usually mean default and admission of failure, something that isn't very attractive to the developers or their banks (many of which are going to go under as soon as they have to admit that their loans aren't being paid back). Much better to simply pretend that nothing is wrong and maybe the next surge will work.

On the other hand, NY real estate turns over slowly, and more slowly in recent years as prices have gotten too high for most of the people who live in these neighborhoods. So most owners would still have plenty of equity even if prices dropped 50%. Once those folks accept that the market is really down, they'll have relatively little problem selling for less than they hoped, especially since most of them will be putting most of their profits into a new house that has also declined in value.

Bottom line: housing declines start very slowly and often with a long period of flat prices. But this one may well accelerate once it gets going, and isn't likely to stop until prices are back to trend, which would also put them more or less back in line with replacement cost and with rental value.

That requires about a 50% REAL drop, which could mean ten years flat selling prices while inflation, pay and rents catch up with current prices, or a sudden collapse if a few large condo developments go into foreclosure and the banks decide to cut their losses and move on, or anything in between.

In any event, it's a strange time to consider buying unless you have met your dream home and don't care what prices are going to be next year.

Posted by: guest at July 9, 2008 12:37 PM