House of the Day: 102 Windsor Place

Kitchen definitely needs an overhaul and only 2 stories is a bit of a bummer. Lot is the key plus, but for some people, maintaining that amount of yard could be daunting. Agree that it's way overpriced, but it's a cute house. I do wonder if it's dark inside?

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 2:22 PM

Mrs. Limestone - was the Howard street house renovated out the wazoo? Also, houses that just closed mean that they probably had the sale several months ago and a lot has changed since then - the market really is shifting quite a bit, so using comps from what was arguably a peak moment is not necessarily an indication of what people will buy right now. For many reasons, the buyer pool is shifting (credit problems, uncertainty, folks waiting by the sidelines, NYC market finally showing weakness, etc.)

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 2:41 PM

Actually, I do think things have changed in the last 90 days - these last few months have really seen a shift even in broker sentiment. I know since we are actively looking to buy (we sold before the credit crisis hit hardest), and are seeing many places lingering, suffering price cuts, and brokers uniformly telling us we're lucky to have already sold since in this environment it is a major liability to have to sell in order to buy. There are always properties that are anomalies since, after all, each property is different, but this particular house is quite average except for the big lot - but whether that is worth a premium of several 100K seems very doubtful to me.

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 3:03 PM

With all due respect Mrs. Limestone, I believe you might have a vested interest in promoting high property values in the neighborhood you chose to buy into. So far, everyone else obviously thinks differently than you do. But yes, folks can agree to disagree and at the end of the day, the market will tell what the true value is of this house.

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 3:44 PM

I don't mean to accuse Mrs. Limestone in particular - it's a common issue on this blog that many people approach the market/pricing with an agenda inherent in the position from which they are looking at things (i.e. people tend to defend their own neighborhoods). Hey, you can accuse me of having a vested interest in wanting prices to go down (since we are looking to buy). As I said, the market will tell. Certainly don't mean to ruffle feathers, esp since Mrs. Limestone in particular is a very helpful poster to the blog!

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 4:02 PM

Fair enough Mrs. Limestone. Really, whatever the individual motives are of anyone posting on here, no one person can single handedly affect the real estate market's movement. Your information is valid, as is the information that is plainly visible in recent comps and articles, demonstrating that prices are now going down from the unsustainable highs they reached very recently.

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 4:25 PM

To "I disagree" - I'd be interested to hear what better articles you would suggest? Of course, the highs were years in coming (so the unsustainable run-up was not "very recent" but its peak seems to be). While some on this blog have said the peak was earlier, from what I can see (we've been looking for a house for years, and started long before we sold our apt) prices really were steadily rising up until this past spring, when at last they started to really decline. I know many say you can't time the market, and ridicule those who try to "call the peak" but I am basing my comments on recent articles/statistics, tracking comps from our avid and continuing house hunt, and of course, following this blog. Also, unlike the stock market, which can turn on a dime, real estate actually is easier to track in terms of its cycles since it does move more slowly so looking at the last 3-6 months really does show a pattern that is quite different from the months and years preceding.

Posted by: Miss Muffett at September 3, 2008 9:48 PM