House of the Day: 484 East 17th Street
We got a tip from a regular reader on Friday about a new listing on Mary Kay Gallagher that he said was the nicest house he’d ever seen in Ditmas Park. The reason he’d been inside is that it was on last year’s Victorian Flatbush house tour. (We even included a photo of the kitchen…
We got a tip from a regular reader on Friday about a new listing on Mary Kay Gallagher that he said was the nicest house he’d ever seen in Ditmas Park. The reason he’d been inside is that it was on last year’s Victorian Flatbush house tour. (We even included a photo of the kitchen in our recap below.) From the photos on the listing, we’d have to agree that the 1902 Queen Anne Victorian looks spectacular. In addition to the tip-top restoration of the historic details, the kitchen and bathroom renovations look beautiful to us — a rare perfect balance of the modern with the traditional. So the question isn’t whether there will be demand for this house (we bet there will be a line around the block), it’s whether the asking price of $1,950,000 will fly. We bet it’s not far off.
434 East 17th Street [Mary Kay Gallagher] GMAP P*Shark
Victorian Flatbush House Tour Recap [Brownstoner]
The point is there are no comparable houses in the area. Most of these are smaller and need a ton of work because they have been in the same family for years and the area is just gentrifying. Those are going for $1.2 on average lately. This doesn’t seem so out of the ball park. On the neighborhood – it does not have a big commercial area and is a bit of a walk from the park. There are some poor neighborhoods around it too. The public schools have great gifted programs and the community base is really starting to work on them, but a lot of people in the neighborhood still send their children to private school. This house isn’t for someone who wants to live in a busy city area with great restaurants or needs to feel like every surrounding area is upper class. It is for someone who wants a diverse area, a close drive/bus or subway ride to the busy areas, with a lot of space, a very tight neighborhood of families and a tree lined, leafy street with children playing in the backyards. If a house of this size and this condition were in a neighborhood surrounded with upper class neighborhoods and good restaurants, it would have an asking price of $4 million.
They’ll easily get the ask on this. That work is at least $500K if not more. There are no comparables because nothing has come on the market in this good condition, but a big house in ditmas park proper that needs work would command 1.5 so this looks kind of cheap.
It is certainly not “the ‘hood” TRUST ME, but if you’re looking for bklyn heights/park slope amenities…well, it ain’t that either. Slowly, restaurants are opening up on cortelyou road and there is a wine shop and a food coop there as well. Grocery stores are eh.
I don’t consider this location to be walking distance to prospect park and can’t comment on the state of the local public schools at this time though I attended p.s. 139 (cortelyou rd.) in the 80’s and turned out alright.
If you’re looking for a beautiful spacious home, here it is. Looking for a neighborhood walking distance to a strip like 7th avenue in the slope or montague street in the heights (ugh) then pass this one by.
1:47, do you know how many comparable houses have even sold in that area for more than $1.5 million? As far as i know zero. They’ll be lucky if they get $1.6.
This house is beautiful..I love ditmas! However, my co-workers reaction was…great house but 1.9 to live in the hood! I tend to disagree but being she comes from more money and lives in bklyn heights I guess it is a different perspective?
Anyway..the house is amazing!
Wowie what a beautiful house. Wish i had the dough man o’ man!
how much is the house worth TODAY based on current market comparables and the size/condition/amenities of the house??
i don’t see what the relevance of the previous purchase price is AT ALL.
just b/c you know how to use PropertyShark does not make you a real estate expert.
Can people comment on the neighborhood? Are there decent shops and restaurants? How are the local schools? Is it safe? And how long a walk is it to Prospect Park?
Agree with the last poster. The neighborhood has increased in value since it last sold and these people clearly put in a ton of money and a ton of work and have excellent taste. That is what justifies the price increase. If I was still looking, I would be all over this house at this price. Other houses that are MUCH smaller, with MUCH less character, in MUCH worse shape and with NO modern updates have been selling at 1.2-1.3. It will cost those buyers a pretty penny and take them a year or so of living in a construction zone to turn their houses into anything that looks remotely like this and even then, it will never be this size and this unique on the outside. That is worth $500-$600K, in my opinion. Also – people are calling 2800 sq. ft. – 18 inch wide, complete dump brownstones going for $1.6 “deals” on this site. Some, like me, prefer houses, and this one is magnificent and rare.