A Couple of Sales

I can't believe someone paid $710K for that POS on Fenimore. Where does the Post get its info? There is no sale listed on either PropertyShark or ACRIS since the builder of that eyesore bought the beautiful frame house with circular windowed porch (check out the photo on PS) to tear it down and replace it with these twin horrors.

The Corcoran selling broker, incidentally, now has two units here listed for rent at $2000 each, which is pretty substantially above market rents for the area. Another Corcoran agent has the new building on Lefferts Ave between Nostrand and NY with 2 BR 2 bath apartments at $1975, and they aren't moving either.

Posted by: babs at January 12, 2009 2:13 PM

Brownstones don't sell for $2.5 million in this area, either. Closest comparables might be the two-family house on my block, in the PLG historic district, that just sold for $708K in October. I think that's a better answer to your question, Hoboken, and in that case, I would say emphatically YES.

Posted by: babs at January 12, 2009 2:33 PM

Unfortunately, the market for these homes is generally unsophisticated and unqualified purchasers who are told by the unscrupulous sellers (usually the developer, as in this case) that they will be able to offset all their mortgage expenses via the rental income.

Posted by: babs at January 12, 2009 3:05 PM

Unfortunately, Chaka, most of these houses are poorly constructed and your friends who love them may be in for some headaches in the near future.

Whereas the walls of older buildings are usually two or three layers of bricks, modern construction is concrete blocks with only one thin layer of brick over them (or sometimes, as in the case of side and back walls, not even that!). Concrete is pourous and unless the builder has installed weepholes, directing water out from between the blocks, mold and humidity problems may begin.

Additionally, these houses are much less well-insulated than traditional brick construction, meaning increased energy costs.

Finally, that valley in between the two peaked roofs will collect snow in the winter, which will melt. If the construction is good it will be directed off of the roof, but if not the roof will leak.

I certianly hope your well-qualified friends who love these houses had the ones they bought inspected for these and other problems beforehand.

And that has nothing to do with aesthetics.

Posted by: babs at January 12, 2009 5:07 PM

"I know from experience that Brownstones and Victorian frame homes with structural/roof issues can be just as, if not more troublesome and expensive to repair than a newer home. That has everything to do with aesthetics."

How does this have anything to do with aesthetics? I agree the preference for one look over another does, but structural/roof issues?

The only consolation in seeing these hideous things pop up all over is knowing that they are too poorly built to stand up for 100 years -- I'll be long gone but at least future generations won't have to look at them, although g-d knows what new crap the marketers to people who like "new, shiny" things will have come up with by then.

Posted by: babs at January 12, 2009 6:18 PM