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March 31, 2009
neighborhood info. request
I'm thinking about purchasing a single-family in East Flatbush (42nd street between Linden and Church). I know very little about the neighborhood, other than the obvious West Indian demographics. Anybody live in that area? Can you offer advice/info. about the community? Thanks.
Comments
I'm afraid East Flatbush may not be historical or hip enough for most brownstoner readers.
I'd say rent to try out the neighborhood. In a year you will likely be able to buy more for less.
I'd avoid buying anything now unless it was a great deal, and for East Flatbush my guess is more than a couple hundred grand is too much to pay now.
I came across this link -- foreclosures in the area would suggest prices will continue heading down
http://www.trulia.com/foreclosure/2003626308--E-42nd-St-Brooklyn-NY-11203
Posted by: Bklnite at March 31, 2009 12:40 PM
Mr. B -
I got a random seeming "your comment is being held"
(?)
My comment was basically ...
East Flatbush may not be historical or hip enough to elicit a response from the Brownstoner regulars.
My advice: rent to try out the neighborhood. You can probably get a better deal a year from now.
Foreclosures in the neighborhood are a good sign prices are declining.
http://www.trulia.com/foreclosure/2003626308--E-42nd-St-Brooklyn-NY-11203
Posted by: Bklnite at March 31, 2009 12:56 PM
it's quite over there. the main streets, utica btw chuch & linden are busy. it is a good hike to the subway. parking is usually good.
Posted by: bkny at March 31, 2009 1:09 PM
We bought our house (a 2 family) in East Flatbush not far from this block a little over a year and a half ago. I love the neighborhood. I have to disagree with the Bklnite's comment - we have found there's a lot of history to this area. My neighbors are wonderful people and there's a lot of owner/occupied two families. Sadly, there are foreclosures, mostly due to predatory lending and many first time homeowners' extreme naivete. I'm not expert enough in the world of forecasting real estate futures to tell you when you should buy, we found a house we loved that we could afford and that we are fixing up. If you're looking for a neighborhood with lots of different types of restaurants, shops, etc. like you would find in other more gentrified areas of Brooklyn then you might not enjoy this neighborhood. If you are looking for an affordable home and nice neighbors and blocks of families who work together to enter the Greenest Block In Brooklyn and do other types of neighborhood improvement/community projects, then you will like it very very much. If you would like to visit and take a walk around with me and ask more questions, you can find my email in my profile. I'd be more than happy to take a lovely spring walk and share East Flatbush with you!
Posted by: honeycut at April 1, 2009 1:55 PM
honeycut-
Glad to see your comment. My intent was not to malign East Flatbush - on this blog, most of the discussion is on more "fashionable" neighborhoods... mostly of "brownstone" brooklyn. East Flatbush doesn't show up in the neighborhood dropdown list at the top of brownstoner.com - maybe you should to feed some tips or post ideas to Mr. B :)
"Victorian" flatbush, where I live, gets some attention here, & has a lot of 100 year old houses (and probably unaffordable to lots of folks), whereas East Flatbush is probably mostly houses built later (and prices that aren't so insane). Wait and see is probably not a bad idea in these times regardless of where you're looking, but if you find a place you love, that you can afford, that you plan to be in for a long time, it may well make sense for you.
Good luck rabbit.
Posted by: Bklnite at April 2, 2009 9:38 AM
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