Hey King -- do you really think prices will be going up in a year? Even if the economy recovers in the next year, the massively inflated real estate prices won't be rising anytime soon. Prices are still going down with one of the lowest mortgage rates in decades. All that 'made up' money that increased the prices since 2000 doesn't exist anymore. Until prices get in line with incomes - little Condos wont be appreciating - unless there is massive inflation. The rest of the country has contracted massively, NYC just barely.

Posted by: tippingpoint at May 9, 2009 7:15 AM in response to 14 Hope Street Takes a Mulligan

The problem with the corner brownstones is the lack of the garden and the noise from Roger's avenue - although you get the benefit of a garage. This is the last building in the manor district, so you can't rent out the bottom apartment legally - I think the ground floor is originally a Dr.'s office (although not when it was built, like the row houses on Parkside). I would say 900K if someone falls in love with it and it sells in the next month or so, and 750K if it's still on the market in 4 months.

Its too bad about the 3ft of garden on the avenue side - it would be a much more impressive house if it were really 23' ft wide instead of 20.

Posted by: tippingpoint at April 30, 2009 1:52 PM in response to House of the Day: 216 Maple Street

um, the FG house is 13.75ft wide. Who wants to pay over a million dollars to live in a hallway?

Posted by: tippingpoint at April 24, 2009 1:59 PM in response to Open House Picks

A better way to get the average, is to take off a number of the lowest and highest appraisals and average the rest. So, if there were 20 appraisals, as there are now, you would ignore the lowest 3 and the highest 3 and average the rest.

Posted by: tippingpoint at April 16, 2009 1:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 501 Bainbridge Street

Three words: Home Price Index. In NYC it is currently at 192. (down from peak of 215.83 in June 2006) - There just isn't enough money to justify these prices. The housing market has been over inflated for 10 years and now that money isn't abundant (it's still historically very cheap), you can expect a pretty striking correction.

Posted by: tippingpoint at October 27, 2008 11:10 AM in response to The Housing Crisis Has Arrived

re: Clinton Hill Floorplans - What's a FOAMAL DINING ROOM?

Posted by: tippingpoint at October 17, 2008 3:36 PM in response to Open House Picks

The 40-50% reduction relate to the fundamentals of the economy and the relative price of real estate to other goods (including rent) - You must also realize that the large increase of cheap money pushed up prices of a lot of things, but contrary to cheap money in the early 90s (look at the stock market indexes) most of this cheap money went into housing. The problem gets much worse when loans can't be repaid because of the multiplier effect of money in the economy.

I agree that people didn't but a $4mm Brownstone in Park Slope using a NINA loan, but prices are relative to each other: i.e. the bottom pushes the top higher and prices are relative. Without runaway inflation of other goods including income (as they relate to housing) we're going to see a drastic decrease in price.

Not all prices will go down by 50%, some prices are only out of equilibrium by about 25% - but flipping through the realtors websites, there are plenty that are 100% over valued (i.e. 50% reduction) simply to be afforded by people's incomes when there isn't cheap money.

Posted by: tippingpoint at October 3, 2008 12:07 PM in response to Third Quarter Report: Foreclosures Down in Brooklyn

regarding my previous post, the price of hoses may bum me out when I need a replacement to water my garden, but have little to do with real estate. please substitute 'hoses' with 'houses'.

Posted by: tippingpoint at October 3, 2008 10:46 AM in response to Third Quarter Report: Foreclosures Down in Brooklyn

There is a good reason that foreclosures haven't yet hit a tipping point in Brooklyn and that's simply because the price of real estate hasn't dived yet. We are on the start of a decline, and that decline will start to accelerate which will fuel foreclosures.

in 2005 when SISA loans and NINA loans were being converted into CDOs, many people in the business were surprised that they were actually paying dividends even though the basis of the CDOs were "toxic waste" - and the reason for this was increasing hose prices. People could take out a home equity loan to make monthly payments. In this market, home equity loans are much harder to come by, couple that with the start of a decline in house prices and we're at the start of a wild ride.

Real estate in Brooklyn (and Manhattan) is over valued by about 40-50%

Just wait and see.

Posted by: tippingpoint at October 3, 2008 10:43 AM in response to Third Quarter Report: Foreclosures Down in Brooklyn