I'm getting sick of the knee-jerk insertion of the word "hipsters" into anything Wburg related. Buildings like this are not really renting to 'hipsters' or these mythical trust-funded faux bohemians. They'll rent to post-college professionals, NYU and New School students, youngish people with salaried jobs who want to be near the nightlife action. If they can fill the super-pricey Avalon on the LES, I imagine this will do fine as a rental (the idea of anyone buying in it is laughable), especially if the one-bedrooms allow wall-building.

That said (and I live near the Lorimer L, so I walk by here a lot) it sure would be depressing to be surrounded by so many windswept, syringe-littered mud pits.

Posted by: babygreene at August 22, 2009 2:05 PM in response to 229 North 8th Goes Rental

Interesting to see that they're renting out the studios at above 2K...is that normal for BH?

Posted by: babygreene at August 18, 2009 11:39 AM in response to Price Cuts at One Brooklyn Bridge Park

390 for a 1-bedroom is pretty damn appealing. Is that unit eye-level at the BQE, or what?

Posted by: babygreene at August 18, 2009 11:35 AM in response to Price Cuts at One Brooklyn Bridge Park

I moved from brownstone bk to Williamsburg (DH, we're neighbors) and my thought is, dammit, why must these buildings all have tacky names and finishes? They'd be even cheaper if they didn't, and they'd sell much better. Plenty of creative professionals of middle income would love to buy in the neighborhood if there was anything remotely acceptable to buy.

A normal, contextually appropriate brick condo building in Williamsburg with no name, just an address, no 18-foot lobby--that's something I might consider buying into. Or a tasteful modern building of residential scale or even better, how about CONVERSIONS of all of those factories that were torn down? The building at Driggs and Grand was beautiful, and now it's going to be a 25-story middle finger to out middle-finger the middle finger.

The Evry on Manhattan near Ainslie, to name one, isn't half bad. But then I saw the listings. Must they all be duplexes with bathrooms that look straight out of Minority Report?

Some of these also have Domino-circa-2006 black chandeliers and neo-romantic wallpaper in their 20-foot-high lobbies. Also, why are grey and mauve metallic brick so trendy among these developers? Anyone? Bueller?

It's not just the market--it's developers' garish bad taste and pandering to a no-longer-relevant sense of entitlement. That's why I'd have condo shame were I even considering one, and that's why I duck my head every time I visit my friend who lives in the (not actually all that bad) Loftology in Greenpoint, in mortal fear that someone I know will be eating at Enid's.

Posted by: babygreene at August 12, 2009 12:11 PM in response to Fear (of Condos) and Self-Loathing in Williamsburg

What about the affordable housing allotment in this monster? Anyone know anything about that, or am I imagining that it existed in the first place?

Are any of the retail spots here taken? My guess is no. But wondering.

Posted by: babygreene at August 6, 2009 10:36 PM in response to Taking the Edge Off of the Edge? Nope, It Turns Out

Also, there is a closet, which is a normal-sized closet for one person! The floor is original, and the kitchen and bath were renovated in 2005 before I bought it. Not sure why bathroom is not shown, but it's modern, tasteful, and yes, quite petite.

The bars will come off but only if the buyer wants them to :)

Sorry to shill, just offering all relevant information. My comments will hereby be restricted to Wburg condo trash-talking.

Posted by: babygreene at August 6, 2009 10:05 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 27 South Portland Avenue, #3

Okay everyone, this is my apartment! Thank you for your comments. :)

Here is my .02 and some background info:

The hallway floors are being redone, hence the "dirty" appearance of the photo. It's just to show that the hallway is, in fact, being redone. And the place is empty because the floors were just redone and the walls painted, and I moved out for love. It doesn't need to be staged--it is what it is, half a parlor for someone to build a sleep loft / storage units to their own taste, or leave it as is.

I'm not taking a hit--I'm testing the market because I moved. As a regular reader, I'm generally tired of commenters not making intelligent, realistic comments about the market. Studios in this neighborhood aren't going for 100K, period. How much do you pay in rent, brickoven?

Maintenance does greatly affect the affordability of a place, and this one is not going up anytime soon (the mortgage is about paid off.) Do I feel excruciating pain knowing that mansions in Indianapolis go for this price? Of course. Yes, it's screwed up that a room in New York costs six figures, but we live in NYC and prices are higher here. And yes, it's not the most ideal layout, but such is brownstone living. The ceilings are 13 feet high and it feels like Paris. For those who can't imagine suffering such indignities, the Toren awaits with open arms.

Owning this place cost me the same as renting the even smaller, Home Depot-tastic Boerum Hill studio I was in before, and parlor studio rentals like this on a block like this are now going for $1550-1800 a month if you look on Craigslist.

So, Nomi, you do make a lot of sense--your reasoning was mine when I bought the place.

Also, this is not an SRO, it's a coop with two studios and the rest 1-2 BRs, and the neighbors are some of the loveliest people I know. When studios are outgrown, they can be used for all sorts of things, or rented out. They will always appeal to first-time buyers.

Besides, Fort Greene is a much better place to live than the West Village. Would anyone on here disagree?

Posted by: babygreene at August 6, 2009 9:55 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 27 South Portland Avenue, #3

And anyone who has an issue with Fort Greene obviously hasn't been there on a Saturday recently.

Posted by: babygreene at August 3, 2009 8:54 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 32 South Oxford Street

People buy studios as pied-a-terres, for student children, or (like I did) to get on the property ladder. They're not so bad for a few years; when you meet the love of your life, you can always rent it out as a long-term investment or even use it as a work studio. They are often the same price as renting and if you want to live alone, forget about affording a 1-bedroom to buy unless you have one of those six-figure jobs.

Nothing wrong with dating a man who lives in a studio--especially if he's responsible enough to own it.

Posted by: babygreene at August 3, 2009 8:53 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 32 South Oxford Street

Brooklyn Heights is the whitest, lamest, most depressing neighborhood in its peer group.

Posted by: babygreene at August 3, 2009 6:23 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 32 South Oxford Street

I wish they would allow some of these empty spaces (hello, W11!) to be used as office space by all of the young start-up businesses in the area. Commercial real estate west of the BQE--fast access to Manhattan--is impossible to find right now at a fair price. The neighborhood is full of youngish people who want to start businesses.

Wburg has a lot to offer. How many of you haters actually spend time there? I loathe the collegiate hordes as much as the next person, but it has a pretty remarkable array of local color. I like Dressler and Bird, and I also love Kasia's Diner and desperately miss Matamoros.

Just because ZIP 11217 is mostly picturesque doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of pretentious twits.

It's not people who love wine who have "ruined" the neighborhood--it's corporate developers with bad taste who bought out so many perfectly good existing structures (and kicked out so many businesses from commercial/industrial space) in order to create these illogically scaled monsters, and Amanda Burden and Bloomberg, who let them do it.

Posted by: babygreene at July 27, 2009 9:33 PM in response to Checking In On 268 Wythe Avenue

It looks pretty inviting to me, and I've never much cared for those co-ops. Dig the blue kitchen countertops.

Posted by: babygreene at July 3, 2009 1:43 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 201 Clinton Avenue, #15E

Actually, Wasder, I know two young women who have been rather violently mugged in the area in the last 2-3 years--one on Wyckoff btw Hoyt/Bond, I think. But I lived at Hoyt/Wyckoff and felt very safe, so who knows.

Posted by: babygreene at July 1, 2009 4:16 PM in response to Living in Boerum Hill

The What, I've had it with you in this thread. Stop calling everyone retards and asshats. Argue your points like a grownup. Everyone else agree?

Posted by: babygreene at May 27, 2009 9:09 PM in response to 80 Dekalb Tops Out

Pardon me if I'm missing something here as an occasional poster/comment reader, but:

BHO, don't you have anything better to do? Who are you? Do you own any Brooklyn property?

Am I the only one sick of these incessant posts full of aggro, over-the-top negativity? I am totally open to well-made arguments that the market is going down, but BHO and the What's testosterone vibes bug me.

Posted by: babygreene at May 26, 2009 12:49 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

Do the ones that supposedly let light through really let light through, or do they massively reduce it? I'm on the parlor floor but I have a downstairs neighbor, and the garden is his, but I have thought about trying, maybe, to get the board to ok a wide, shallow Juliet balcony.

And does the increase in property value justify doing this? Thoughts?

Posted by: babygreene at May 19, 2009 2:50 PM in response to Cost For a New Deck

Also, the studio in Midtown is now in contract at $349, so call me self-interested, but maybe we're not so far off here. (It was originally listed at $399.)

Posted by: babygreene at May 12, 2009 3:05 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 101 Lafayette Avenue, #17C

I own a brownstone studio a block away from the Griffin. I have a fireplace, 13-foot ceilings, and a view of a beautiful garden, and I'm 50 feet from the park. I would rather leave NYC than live in Midtown, especially that depressing post-war solitary confinement box on 57th Street. With an ARM, I pay $1460 a month (and am thinking of refinancing now to lower it). Of course, my maintenance is much lower than this one's.

This one may be on the higher end, especially with the maintenance, but there are no studios with beauty and character, anywhere in desirable NYC, for the prices some of you seem to want. $220? It doesn't exist. We are still in NYC. The sales market will reflect the rental market, and the cost of renting your own place hasn't dropped that much in prime 'hoods (or has it?)

SnarkSlope, or anyone else, can you find some other pre-war studios in brownstone Brooklyn to compare this to? Because I never considered anything or anywhere else for my first place.

Posted by: babygreene at May 12, 2009 2:48 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 101 Lafayette Avenue, #17C

I happen to know the owners. These photos were taken before they moved in! That's not their furniture, they changed the kitchen, and the photos are weirdly distorted. This is why Mr. B mentions using it as an interiors post--it looks nothing like this.

The house is drop-dead gorgeous, and huge--and no, I'm not a broker.

Posted by: babygreene at January 17, 2008 3:24 PM in response to House of the Day: 242 Washington Avenue