Open House Picks Open Thread

I like the restaurant (I hate spelling that word) reviews but do agree that they're frequency has overshadowed brownstone discussion and follow-up. How about sort options (cuisine, cost, etc.) under the "RESTAURANTS" tab and the inclusion of all reviews, not just the recent ones?

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 29, 2008 2:19 PM

Why, Biff? You obviously read'em. Stop worrying about your property value. You've bought for the long haul. (Outsiders - Ssshhhh! I'm not really The What)

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 29, 2008 2:29 PM

No, troll. DOWhat = anybody who talks down Brooklyn RE prices. But we don't die, we multiply.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 29, 2008 2:52 PM

Biff and everyone else KNOWS The What and I are not one and the same. When you run out of arguments for a strong market and thus the shoring up of your property value, you resort to ridicule. Hence, the fun with names. Ask him to specifically describe how I was "exposed".

"Seems like things will get worse before they get better so why not get out while the gettings still relatively good?"

Greed, and the denial that comes with it when the market turns, has no bounds.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 29, 2008 5:07 PM

"How about a new tab called 'Say What????'

How 'bout you just ignore us? I don't mean any disrespect but, if you're not interested in our posts, why implicate yourself otherwise with the reference to 'What supporters and haters'? It takes a little bit of reading (INTEREST) to decipher that.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 29, 2008 5:13 PM

1230 Dean (Tudor w/ garage for $1.195M) emphasized in The Times.

http://tinyurl.com/5n32rz (Times)
http://tinyurl.com/6nz6yo (Corcaran)

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 30, 2008 9:21 AM

setancre,

Your parents should think very hard and rationally about this. Why would it not be possible or even likely that $550K is the highest bid they will ever see again? I know they want to walk away with a decent profit but they may very well walk away with a higher loss instead if they end up chasing the market down over the months to come. This slowly bursting appreciation bubble was unprecedented for our lifetimes and maybe for those of your parents. Even Manhattan apartment prices are down.

But, maybe they're not counting on home equity for their retirement/wealth. Maybe they are really content on living in that house. Otherwise, they might want to roll the dice and take that $550K, perhaps from the point of view of minimizing a loss. But doing nothing could also be a roll of the dice. You've been warned.

Good luck.

(On a side note: you won't get much interest for your parent's house here as most of us are stuck on Northern Brooklyn)

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 30, 2008 6:03 PM

Look BiDaWaDi!!! (BiffDaveWasderDitto) - I'm blogging with two computers side by side (6:01, 6:03).

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 30, 2008 6:08 PM

"$50k is a lot of money."

How 'bout $100k? That's what they risk "losing" if they wait. So it does sound like they are counting on home equity as their nest egg. They need to accept that $550K right now. A broker told me about a colonial in Fort Greene (Cumberland) where the owner is kicking himself for not accepting a "low" bid of 1.3. He wanted 1.6 or something like that. Max. Value = Highest Closeable/Financeable Bid.

"So if they have to wait 1 or 2 years for the market to firm up and get his extra $50k so be it."

setancre, setancre, setancre...You are wiser than that. RE doesn't rebound like the stock market (especially when we are nowhere near the bottom - NYC S&P Case-Shiller Index keeps posting losses, YOY). Read some history.

http://tinyurl.com/g9vf4 (A History Of Home Values)
http://tinyurl.com/2p3xmp (Home Prices Do Fall)

The typical RE cycle is 20 years long. Worse yet, this is an atypical RE cycle that we will not see again in our lifetimes. I bet that everybody's gonna be BLOWN AWAY at the significant drops in comps. That "extra" $50k (and probably more) will likely have a negative sign next to it.

"...not getting what they feel would be a reasonable price."

FEEL. That's the problem. They need to THINK.

"I know most people on Brownstoner live in (or want to live in) Brooklyn, but not everyone wants to stretch themselves financially to afford it (especially families) with the way prices have run up."

But the ones who did stretch themselves (pinnochio loans, higher energy costs this winter, out of control renovation budgets, etc.) are being rudely awakened to the beginning of a price run DOWN. So just about anyone who qualifies for a house at any price in this most restrictive lending environment (and only getting harder) can afford to live in Brooklyn if they simply WWWAAAIIITTT!!! The jumbo mortgage market (for 6 or 7 percent interest rates) has imploded. The pool of buyers who can cash up the difference and wanna buy NOW is dwindling. Those who save and wait will be able to put more money down on a cheaper house. In that case, they can beat higher interest rates and that's exactly what we will have going forward.

Sell now for more or sell later for less.

(It's POSSIBLE I'm wrong but NOT LIKELY)

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 31, 2008 1:24 PM

Sorry, underwasder. The seperate responses from setancre at August 31, 2008 10:39 AM epitomize the failure of your pathetic attempt to link The What and I as the same individual. But I will continue to have fun (be retarded) with you.

"how long do people need to wait before buying?"

They don't NEED to wait at all. They can overpay any time now, just like you. Good things (lower prices) come to those who wait. We're down 10 percent and dropping. Ownership is a privledge not a necessity. Or they can go out right now and lowball 25 to 50 percent off peak comps.

"Meanwhile, where are people suppose to live?"

Apartment rentals, stupid. If you have too many kids (3 or more) for an apartment, you rent a house in Queens or Staten Island (rentals, setancre, rentals!), then return to Brooklyn to buy a house when the Case-Shiller YOY approaches zero or your lowball gets bitten. Or you go ahead and follow the dwindling herd of sheep (it's not too late to call the Coast Guard, underwasder!) and overpay today IF the banks and/or a room full of cash lets you.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 1, 2008 8:46 AM

Never ceases to amaze me, What. From Amway MLM schemes, to Time Shares, to Three Card Monte, and now, to Brooklyn price appreciation. Human psychology is simply amazing!

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 1, 2008 10:59 AM

That Ludwig von Mises guy was no joke.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 2, 2008 9:11 AM

"What your motives are, I have no idea."

When not contributing "more postively" (wainscotting, crown moldings, yada yada), my motive is to help catalyze the inevitable and necessary collapse of brownstone prices so I and and the rest of the middle class can hurry up and afford a brownstone in the confines of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene already. Dump and Pump. "Pathetic" but true.

Don't you want to buy another brownstone or two? Can you at current comps?

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 2, 2008 9:52 AM

"I don't think you have too much power..."

Not as an individual. But as a constituent and "recruiter" of a growing masses of Brooklyn brownstone home price bears, I can leverage power. That's how asset bubbles get started - the leverage of mass psychology (euphoria and greed). That's how they get deflated - the leverage of mass psychology (reality and fear).

bridges - Manhattan apartment prices are down. That speaks volumes about where brownstone Brooklyn prices are headed. Visit nychousingbubble.blogspot.com (they even have a link to brownstoner) for more info. Good things come to those who wait. The price implosion is a process, not an event, and is on no one's schedule. Experts predicted the crash of 1929 and NASDAQ two years prior. Didn't matter EXACTLY when they were right. Had some taken heed, they would have saved themselves from a lot of pain (perhaps even held on to some wealth). Why catch a falling knife?

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 2, 2008 4:59 PM

"Actually, it does matter."

DIDN'T matter for that particular case. Sure it matters in general.

"...you are really full of yourself."

Why? Are/Were you not a part of a mass (albeit dwindling) of Brooklyn home price bulls? Bull vs Bears. When it comes to market debate, it simplifies to just that.

"...your log-in should tell everyone how wrong you are and how wrong you will be."

Only time will tell.

"...but I don't consider myself 'recruited' by you."

You don't have to. You were probably already a bear before my comments got a hold of you. I said I am a constituent AND a 'recruiter'. It doesn't matter that we're not formally organized. I became a bear because of what other bears wrote (i.e. 'recruited'). Before that, I used to say that you cannot lose in RE.

"You're trolling someone else's blog."

So.

"Did it ever occur to you to instead create your own place for expression?"

Yeah, but I'm a full time professional and parent. Brownstoner quit his job. I too do not have the time to do both. I prefer efficiency. Remember what I said about leveraging power?

"Isn't that kind of the lesson of the last ten years - 'if you build it (and you have good content) they will come?'"

I have built my comments and you, setancre, 11233, wasder, bridges, Brooklyn Love, lurker in the mist (shall I go on?) have come.

"If your message resonates, it would likely be much more effective than trolling the Bstoner comments."

Sure it would. I simply do not have the time. I'd rather be a contributer/troller (like we're all not trolls - this thread is 5 days old, seriously) and put the rest of my time to family, career and other miscellaneous activities.

"...he's a doomsayer economist whom everyone thought was crazy five years ago, but whom everyone wants to consult now."

Gotta be Noriel Roubini. Brownstoner did a thread about him a few years back. Haven't seen anything here since.

"...your insights are diminished by all the invective around here."

I see it differently. There is an underlying reason for the invective. Truth is first violently opposed (Ouch! That hurt!) before it becomes self-evident.

"You have a highly overdeveloped sense of your own importance and advocate an unfortunate vendetta against your fellow citizens."

It's not a vendetta. It's reality. If you OD'd on the koolaid, you are the blame.

"What will inherit if the economy does what you want it to?"

Fundamental brownstone prices (-25 to -50 percent less). We made it through recessions/depressions before. It's a means to an end.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 3, 2008 2:27 PM

Underwasder - I don't wish that on citizens, I wish it on prices. If it's home prices that define you, you've got much more serious problems than a down market. Before brownstones increased 200% in "value", everything was fine. If we go back there (inflation adjusted terms), why would it be much worse?

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 4, 2008 9:32 AM

Let's talk about the effects of the run-up and gentrification it brought. Many long time folk were displaced and their lives disrupted. That was a lovely "means to an end" too, right? I have no more sympathy for someone who lied on their loan application, drank the koolaid, bought in over their head and bought the line, "RE only goes up", than I do for a long time resident who could have bought but didn't. The writing has been on the wall for some time that this was an unsustainable bubble. You're responding to me @ 2:26 AM, underwasder!!! Let me out of your head!!!

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 4, 2008 9:45 AM

"...I am happy to hear your thoughts on why a severe downturn in prices won't ruin the neighborhoods I like living in."

What's your definition of ruin? In my book, the neighborhoods are already ruined by Disneyfication and tour buses. The nabes were fine in 2000. Crime hasn't really changed. Still murders in broad daylight and X-Mas Eve (Clifton, Fish n' Crustacions, Lefferts). Not to mention the muggings and beatings mentioned from time to time on this blog. Brooklyn made it through the depression and the 70's (for those that stayed). It has an intrinsic cultural value that is resilient and not defined by home prices. True Brooklynites who love the borough through thick and thin will not let it go to ruin.

"If you just want to shit on me for fun, fuck off."

Easy Papi! You're not having fun? You go at me, I'm gonna go at you. If you can't take the feedback, then don't try me. You call me DOWhat, I'll call you underwasder.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at September 4, 2008 12:45 PM