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July 2, 2009

House of the Day: 664 Westminster Road

664-Westminster-Road-0709.jpg
This three-story Victorian House at 664 Westminster Road in Ditmas Park was an Open House Pick back in early May when it hit the market asking $995,000; the price was reduced to $939,000 at the end of May and then again to its current price of $895,000 at the beginning of June. The house clearly has a lot of charm so that means it should only be a matter of finding the right price. What do you think?
664 Westminster Road [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark





Posted by Brownstoner at 1:14 PM | Comments (23)
Categories: Ditmas Park, HOTD

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Comments

what a lovely house; the longer I live in the city, the more I appreciate the airy feel of this area of Brooklyn.

Posted by: Maly at July 2, 2009 1:20 PM

This house is awesome

Posted by: brickoven at July 2, 2009 1:23 PM

That's not quite Ditmas, more like West Midwood (if you go by this map) http://www.marykayg.com/html/large_map.html

Posted by: Frederick Law Homestead at July 2, 2009 1:24 PM

Cute house, but - 1 bath.

Posted by: geekspice at July 2, 2009 1:28 PM

it's hard to tell without a floorplan (hint! hint! real estate agent) just how easy it would be to add a powder room and a full bath. It has a lovely face though.

Posted by: Maly at July 2, 2009 1:36 PM


Hmmm... no shul for the purposes of social climbing in the close neighborhood.

Posted by: tybur6 at July 2, 2009 1:53 PM

Maly... you're asking a lot from these realtors aren't you?! After all, the commission is only going to be like $30,000 or $40,000. Barely enough to do more than a handwritten note in their shop window really.

Posted by: tybur6 at July 2, 2009 1:55 PM

tybur6 - assuming you're not just trolling, you may be interested to know that West Midwood's population includes observant Jews who are able to walk to a number of shuls on and near Avenue H.

Posted by: Sparafucile at July 2, 2009 1:58 PM

This is a great price for what looks like a very nice house. It would be $200,000 more if closer to the Cortelyou strip...so this is an excellent deal. If we didn't already have one of the big places on our hands, with perpetual renovations underway, we'd consider this one!

Posted by: lah at July 2, 2009 2:00 PM

Sparafucile... it was a bit tongue-and-cheek, but also somewhat telling about the "quality" of the shuls in walking distance. As we've seen from many previous posts, this same exact house would go for $4.5 million if it was near a "desirable" synagogue. It's actually a fascinating socio-economic phenomenon to me.

(Of course, I'm still convinced there's something kinky going on with those crazy priced houses, but, sadly, everyone has already dismissed by money laundering theory.)

Posted by: tybur6 at July 2, 2009 2:07 PM

kinky = hinky

I don't want to know if there's anything kinky going on in the orthodox community.

Posted by: tybur6 at July 2, 2009 2:08 PM

is this one of those Edwardian Victorians?

Posted by: dittoburg at July 2, 2009 2:17 PM

I think tybur6 means "Sephardic," rather than desirable. The orthodox synagogues around Avenue H are Ashkenazi.

Posted by: Architerrorist at July 2, 2009 2:44 PM

Is that the difference... and I'm asking a real question here. The synagogues that seem to be the cause of the $3MM+ price tags, are they Sephardi communities? (thus, probably inappropriate to refer to them as shuls.)

The price required to own near a "desirable" synagogue is astonishing to me. I'm truly interested.

Posted by: tybur6 at July 2, 2009 2:51 PM

On the other side of Avenue H (the subway tracks form a natural boundary), is a neighborhood known as Manhattan Terrace. It is once of the original "Victorian Flatbush" neighborhoods. Many of the houses have had extensive renovations/remodelling, and the Victorian character of the neighborhood has been greatly compromised. Cross Avenue J, and you can see a few of the houses that once belonged to the tony Midwood Terrace development, which is close to extinct.

Posted by: Architerrorist at July 2, 2009 2:55 PM

Yes, tybur6, they tend to be the Sephardic communities closer to Avenue P and Ocean Parkway.

I'm not totally sure about Borough Park, but there are some high priced homes over there around 13th Avenue, which are Orthodox, but not Sephardic. But not nearly as many.

Posted by: Architerrorist at July 2, 2009 2:59 PM

My estimate is much higher than the widget on this one, which is unusual.
I agree with the previous posts that it needs a second bathroom, though. How much does that kind of thing usually cost (for decent quality but not highest end finishes)?

Posted by: etson at July 2, 2009 3:17 PM

the homecrest areas with the incredibly expensive homes is not just any sephardic community, it's the syrian jewish community, aka the SYs. here's an old NYTimes article about them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14syrians-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

Posted by: mt_molehill at July 2, 2009 3:45 PM

This house may need a lot more than just another bath -- no photos of the one bath or kitchen -- nor mention of their condition. You could spend another $100K right there....

Posted by: BH76 at July 2, 2009 5:06 PM

good point BH76

Posted by: Architerrorist at July 3, 2009 8:16 AM

My current thinking as an armchair theorist on such matters is that a photo of the kitchen is better than no photo of the kitchen even if the kitchen is not a new kitchen. Absent a photo, people imagine the worst.

Looks like a lovely house, very similar to the house I grew up in.

Posted by: Nomi at July 3, 2009 2:01 PM

Saw this house, (not in the market just looked at it) kitchen is not new but appliances are and it has all the original built-in wood cabinets. You could get away with a refinish of the cabs and a granite counter top. All the bedrooms are big enough to add a bath somewhere on each of the upper floors and the existing bathroom has hand painted murals and new fixtures with a jacuzzi tub. If you are willing to give up the butler's pantry behind the dining room you could add a powder room on the first floor. (With a lot of imagination you can probably find another location for the bath) The original wood, stained glass and the size (3 HUGE and 2 big bedrooms and another room) and the deck and huge backyard make it million+ bargain. Take a look!

Posted by: cccslp at July 3, 2009 9:46 PM

That's what I mean -- if you can see that you don't need to completely redo the kitchen, that's far better than an unknown that we fill in with the worst case. Also, a totally updated kitchen is not everybody's first priority. Anyway .. .

Posted by: Nomi at July 4, 2009 12:01 PM

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