Wait 2 years then remove the 1 from the price and it will be priced about right. That would put it back in line with where prices would have naturally been had the past 8 years not occurred as they did. I'm still amazed at the denial of people in this city at what is coming. I'm guessing people like this are hoping to catch onto that denial and sell really fast before it really hits the fan.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at October 23, 2008 1:35 PM in response to House of the Day: 1290 Pacific Street Revisited

Sounds like Sebb bought at the height of the market and is now very much upside down and bitter about it.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at October 3, 2008 5:43 PM in response to Open House Picks

wow these would be great for those young wallstreet execs. Oh wait. They're all unemployed or soon will be. These would be great for young unemployed hipsters who have the 5% down and can pay the interest only for a couple years. Oh wait. Those loans can't be found anymore. These would be great for the average new yorker working blue collar jobs. 20% down plus closing costs would be easy for them to get. Oh wait, that's over $120k and they've spent their savings on food and utilities and the mta. These would make great rentals. Lots of new unsold properties will soon be on the foreclosure block. Reckoning time is here. What would these have sold for in 1998? That's about what they will be worth this time next year. Any suckers want to jump into real estate now?

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at September 29, 2008 12:48 PM in response to Sales Begin at The Steelworks Loft

Apparently Jehova needs money and lots of it.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 18, 2008 3:36 PM in response to House of the Day: 105 Willow Street

Cheap property taxes are only imaginary unless you are totally unemployed because the city income tax more than makes up for what you would be paying outside the city in property taxes. I looked really hard last year at selling and moving out to LI or up to Westchester, and in doing so compared property taxes out there to here versus my city income taxes that I would no longer have to pay. It would have been cheaper for me to move out of the city and pay triple-quadruple property taxes and not have to pay city taxes anymore. However I decided to just stay put since I don't think I could take suburbia for more than a few weeks at a time. I do own property down in the south so that is my getaway.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 12, 2008 5:59 PM in response to Shenanigans at 279 Clermont Avenue?

My concern is are you really going to be happy being forced to share your house with a business (even if it is you) and a tenant just to make the mortgage every month, day in day out, for the next 30 years? I mean it all looks good at first, and then a couple years into deadbeat tenants not hacing rent money because they are laid off, bringing their noisy party friends over (which you cannot deny because they are actually allowed to by law since they have part of your property leasehold rights by paying rent right), NYC tenant laws, having to claim income on your taxes and pay self employment stuff just because you are having to let someone else share your house to make the bills. It can really get to you, especially if you are really stuck being dependent on that extra income in order to get by. I wouldn't want to share my house with other strangers every day for the next 30 years just so I could squeeze into 2 small floors. But thats just me. To each his own. Something to think about though. Have you ever been a landlord in a pro-tenant state before?

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 9, 2008 11:11 PM in response to Auction Time for 306 St. James Place

And before people on here start the "no one buying these brownstones were using those types of loans" think again. Yes they were - at the start of the bubble until the prices went over what they could get that kind of money for. There were prices all over Brooklyn 8 years ago that were normal for the city (and yes much higher than the rest of the country a that time even then but at least normal). The idea became that if an overpriced yet loan obtainable ENY (just for example - nothing against ENY but historically it's been a cheaper area) house could bring 200K then surely my WT, PLG, PS, etc house must surely be double that, triple, that, etc. and appraisers were thinking that too. Then that ENY house would flip for 250K because those buyers were using those alternate type loans knowing they could also flip when the money ran out, so then my XX neighborhood house just went to 500K, and so on and so on. The higher priced neighborhoods just kept getting doubly higher as the lower priced neighborhoods also elevated. It had nothing to do with real value of the bricks and mortar or because people were moving here from Ohio.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 9, 2008 12:13 AM in response to Auction Time for 306 St. James Place

It's definitely not the time to buy right now no matter what the hypsters on here are touting. Circumstances over the past 5-8 years are what made these house prices what they are today, and those circumstances will never come around again. Sub prime, alt-a, interest only, no documentation loans, etc. When any unemployed hick could buy a house for no money down, cash back at closing, "guarantee of rising prices", etc, then sellers were able to get just about whatever they wanted, appraisers were inflating values, banks were taking their fees and selling to secondary markets, and brokers were making a bundle. As long as those conditions remained intact, there was no end to the bubble. My house in Williamsburg was worth 100K in the late 90's, and I thought that that was high then. Then when the free money started flowing, prices went higher and higher and higher with no end in sight. Now that those conditions are over, and the money is frozen except for people who actually can pay it back, there aren't that many people out there looking to move in for a few months and flip out since doubtful they could flip, and banks realize that and realize that since the buyer is actually going to have to live there for 30 years, they are finally sanefully only lending money to people who have jobs and can pay it back. In the normal history of US housing, 2-3% per year has been a normal gain. That means my house that was worth 100K 10 years ago should be worth about 130K now. Maybe a little more simply because of growth of the city. Heck even say 200K would be a high realistic amount. However, it now appraises at 1.5 million. If it were to be destroyed by fire tonight, it would cost me maybe 150K to rebuild. So is the lot really worth 1.35 million? Hardly. People who believe we can never return to 10 year ago prices are delusional. When the bricks and mortar replacement price is still in the 150-300K range, we can certainly fall back to nearly that amount no matter what part of the city we live in. Now that people are losing jobs, bonuses are drying up, the cost of electricity, heating gas/oil, water, food, and transportation (car or MTA) are rising astronomically, people cannot make their 5000-10000 mortgages, even if they have 5 families living with them like a tenement. Realistically, real estate classes and history will tell you people can truly only afford 28-36% of their income for housing. Any more than that and you're living on the edge that can break out from under you at any time. That is what we are starting to see. When there are thousands of houses going to auction, and only tens of buyers qualified and able to buy, supply and demand will work its magic. There is no way I would pay these prices right now if I were looking to buy. Any price on here should be divided by four to be at a normal inflation rate. Houses in East New York, Brownsville, and Queens going to half a million? Insane. back when my house was worth 100K, not even 10 years ago, houses in those areas were around 30-50K. We can and will return to normalcy. There aren't that many people whose 36% could pay for these prices. And for those of you who bought into this hype and paid these kinds of prices, may God bless you with the next 30 years of health and gainful employment. Have you really thought about what would happen if you lost your job for a couple months? It's not like you can turn around and sell it for a profit anymore and walk away. I'm glad my house is paid for.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 8, 2008 11:55 PM in response to Auction Time for 306 St. James Place

Rename the neighborhood BEDCO. That way this house will sail to well over 2 million in less than a year. Better scoop it up now so you can triple your profits! Mmm. This Koolaid's good. Got any more?

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 4, 2008 2:10 PM in response to House of the Day: 208 Hancock Street

From the looks of that picture, its really going to be a tough blow to the maritime industry. Looks like that building and dock area haven't been used since I was a kid. Bring on the Sam's Wholesale Club. They have all name brand merchandise that's dirt cheap in huge lot sizes. Just what we need with hikes in MTA, ConEdison, Keyspan, gas, and food to name a few.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at August 4, 2008 11:19 AM in response to Will Retail Continue to Trump Industry in Red Hook?

Good freaking God. Its summer, everyone is hotter than hades. Give it another month and cool weather will return. You people who gripe about things like this just love to gripe. If it wasn't water dripping it would be something else - my neighbors ac unit is blocking a square foot of sunlight from my window box - I can hear my neighbors cat peeing in the litterbox - wah wah wah. Why not just put something on your unit or turn up the clock radio at night - or count drips until you fall asleep. In Williamsburg all I hear at night are police, fire, and ambulance sirens. My neighbor's a/c could be throwing a rod and I'd never notice. However, I am accustomed to it and would be hard pressed to sleep if it weren't noisy. Life in the city. Get over it. Or you could just do like all the other crybabies and go file a lawsuit or have the coop board try to buy out or sanction the tenant whose a/c does what every other a/c does in the entire country. Geez.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 31, 2008 12:24 AM in response to Help! My neighbor's AC is dripping on us!

http://coldwellbanker.com/servlet/PropertyListing?action=detail&ComColdwellbankerDataProperty_id=13553770&page=property&brand=CB

Lots of properties in Arkansas for decent prices that aren't in shitholes. Most people would argue that I live in a ginormous crime-infested filthy shithole in Brooklyn compared to the rest of the planet. And even I would grant them partly right compared to where and how I lived several years ago in the south. I still own property there and its nice, clean, open, and you can walk the streets at night without worrying about some crazed machete maniac is out there like here in Williamsburg.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 25, 2008 3:34 PM in response to Fed Bailout Bill: Any Piece of That Pie for New Yorkers?

Throughout the rest of the country anywhere but inside the large metro areas, 70K will buy you a nice ranch style home in the 1100-1500 sq ft range that doesn't need any work at all with a nice yard, garage, and $300/year in taxes. $180K-$200K will buy you a brand new, 3000 sq ft McMansion. It's only here near NYC, San Francisco, and for some ungodly reason NJ that prices are so out of line with the rest of the country. There are people right here in the city who would have trouble making a $400/mo mortgage payment, but up here people live 3-5 families in one house and split either the mortgage or the rent just to survive - something you rarely see in other states except in large cities. My relatives down south look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them how people live in multi-family houses here. NYC is truly another planet.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 25, 2008 11:16 AM in response to Fed Bailout Bill: Any Piece of That Pie for New Yorkers?

Lived here for years. Projects have always been unsafe and will always be unsafe. Leopards don't change their spots no matter how many million dollar condos go up around them. Actually the rising prices of our neighborhood has just made the poor feel poorer and the crime has escalated because of jealousy and/or dirty looks from the hipster crowd.

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 16, 2008 4:20 PM in response to williamsburg low rent projects

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/nyregion/14shooting.html?ref=todayspaper

Really, if you're too stupid to use google you shouldt have a computer

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 13, 2008 12:14 AM in response to Open House Picks

http://gothamist.com/2007/09/14/man_fatally_gun.php

Posted by: wburghipstersaredirty at July 13, 2008 12:12 AM in response to Open House Picks