House of the Day: 526 Carlton Avenue
This four-story brownstone at 526 Carlton Avenue in Prospect Heights sold for $1,230,000 back in 2006. Since then, it’s undergone a major renovation that’s resulted in a pretty nice looking house; recessed lighting notwithstanding, the reno managed to preserve the major architectural details of the house while injecting it with some attractive modern upgrades (i.e….
This four-story brownstone at 526 Carlton Avenue in Prospect Heights sold for $1,230,000 back in 2006. Since then, it’s undergone a major renovation that’s resulted in a pretty nice looking house; recessed lighting notwithstanding, the reno managed to preserve the major architectural details of the house while injecting it with some attractive modern upgrades (i.e. they did a nice job on the kitchen and bathrooms). The bigger question is whether $2,300,000 will fly so close to Atlantic Yards.
526 Carlton Avenue [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
Consider this:
1. The comp sales are no where near this address. They are not ‘comparable’ in any way. The brownstone a block away is listed at 1.2. This was bought at the height of the market for 1.25. It was refreshed with about 40k of cosmetic surgery. Add 1.25 = 40 and you get 1.29 million. Subtract anywhere from 10 – 30% for the market correction and you get a realistic price. New developments are now selling for as little as 380.00 a sf and this is more like 700.00. This agent / seller doesn’t have a clue.
2. The house is directly across from a 10 year construction site parking lot. Atlantic yards or whatever replaces it will be your neighbor for a decade. NOISE – NOISE and DIRT.
All in all It seems that the sales team either doesn’t have a clue about Brooklyn or the seller is being totally unrealistic about the value. There are lots of better, nicer, better located building for a lot less. Keep looking!
The renovation was completely under the table. unlicensed guys doing all plumbing electrical work. no permits, no inspections. mostly it is cosmetic, just painted old creaky stairs and patched walls. White stained floors that are more than a hundred years old. Tiny bathroom in the DR added without BD knowing. Location? That block has never sold anything near that price. If the inpsectors could open up those walls this place would cost 899,000.000.
Bought in 2006 for 1.3, it has been vacant since. The renovation is entirely superficial. Anyone who has loked at it carefully will see this. When the rest ofthe country lost 20-40% in value since 2006, this place goes up 80%? Something is very fishy here.
Not worth it based on locaction, size, and the shape it’s in. Not worth it based on the comps. Not worth it based on A.Yards. Just not worth it!
The owner is also the broker. She is a rich lady. She owns a ranch in MOntana, a huge beach place in the hamptons, a condo on east 12th in Manhattan and a loft at newswalk. You can read where her wealth comes from here: http://www.esotericfreedom.com/
you rock brooklyn greene
not feeling this reno
Nomi, good points.
Sigh
I *used* to walk by this house until certain unnamed entities did away with our valuable Carlton Avenue Bridge.
Maybe the new guy (ain’t that a show of desperation?! Poor Bruce!!!) will bring some taste into the project and insist on some decent urban planning and attractive structures…but I’m sure we’ll just be without a bridge or any way of crossing from Fort Greene to Prospect Heights/Flatbush Avenue/Park Slope for ages and won’t get anthing nice built…and if anything is ever built project-wise, the level of design will be based on lowest cost, not planning and decent taste. [Incidentally, does anyone know how much Mr. Gehry et al netted out of the project before leaving to spend more time with family?]
Maybe they’ll deck the entire open area of the yards for parking, and maybe, just maybe, allow people to walk across the lot along what used to be the Carlton Avenue Bridge…or maybe it’ll have a gorgeous high chainlink fence around the entire “property” and we’ll have no access…?
Anyway, to put it mildly, that block is a little sad. I’m not sure why people do such heavy-duty renovations (that, yes, might sell immediately elsewhere) in less than okay spots. And curb appeal? Someone? Could you paint the the front brown at least? Better, for that kind of asking price, strip the front and make sure the “brownstoning” is up to snuff…and replace the windows with deluxe historically appropriate/gorgeous versions…I’d even like to see windowboxes, shutters, etc.
From trapsing back and forth looking at this house, I can say I would never have guessed at the level of renovation inside from the look of the outside.
But anyway, dressing up the facade in a deluxe manner proably would have been more money thrown after bad. Can someone tell me the logic of pouring so much money into a project when it’s across from a parking lot already and what might be a 25 year building/parking site? I hate to have to point that out, but there it is. I guess in the heady moments two-three years ago the person who bought it for over a million dollars figured it was a “slam-dunk”…?
To be quite honest, I could see this sitting and sitting and sitting unless a buyer is out with a very particular need for this location. And, sadly, if the seller cannot hold onto it for too much longer (not owner occupied so it’s sitting empty), it may end up selling near its 2006 price despite all the improvements. Do I sound like Miss Muffet? Held onto for three years and all those lega/professional fees (ugh!) and all the contractors, high-end finishes/appliances…I shudder thinking about it. All that might net the seller a couple of hundred thousand dollars…just not worth it. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong in my intuition and someone will snap this house up soon. I hope so.
Obviously, the timing was off. If it had been bought for $400,000 in 1996 and sold, mildly renovated, for $1.6m in 2006, it would have made more sense (obviously…).
This block has a really ugly infill double duplex from a year or two ago…it *could* have been nearly like the brownstones on either side but they stuck in a “Queens” special. Too bad.
Generally parts of Prospect Heights are pretty nice but there’s a lot of yuckiness. It would have been good for the integrity of the architecture had it been landmarked in the 70s like Fort Greene. Prospect Heights is getting landmarking over 30 years later! Ugh!!! Meanwhile things have been torn down that should have been preserved…hint, hint.
Oops, sorry, my droning came back to Fort Greene…I wonder how that happened.
Brownstone’s painted face
Charming look of yesteryear
Lacks appeal today
***Someday bid half off bad haiku taglines***
great you should audition for next season!
Nomi, you are so right about housewives rocking!
the broker appears to be the owner, thus explaining why the manhattan broker. thus making even more perplexing why she’s misidentified the neighborhood and failed utterly to stage it appropriately.
boerumresident – though i do agree that this ask is overambitious by a decent mark, i don’t think 571 carlton is a good comp at all. 571 is not only narrower and unrenovated (since at least 1978, according to property shark), it’s also got no rental, is a floor less and is on a lot that is 20′ shorter. agree that 571 is on a better block, but certainly nowhere near better enough to void the renovation and extra space and income potential.
Housewives rock.