The Doyenne of Ditmas
The Times ran a lengthy profile this weekend of Mary Kay Gallagher, who’s been ruling the real estate market of Victorian Flatbush for four decades. Gallagher, now 90, and her husband bought their house at 196 Marlborough Road in 1959 for $29,500. A decade later she got her real estate license at the urging of…
The Times ran a lengthy profile this weekend of Mary Kay Gallagher, who’s been ruling the real estate market of Victorian Flatbush for four decades. Gallagher, now 90, and her husband bought their house at 196 Marlborough Road in 1959 for $29,500. A decade later she got her real estate license at the urging of the president of the Prospect Park South Civic Association who thought she had the chops to recruit people who would care about the community and its special assortment of houses. As The Times put it, “Mary Kay Gallagher got into real estate as a kind of civic duty, to help find responsible guardians for the shingled, gabled and columned behemoths in her own backyard.” Since then, she has dominated the sales market in the area, to the chagrin of other brokers, some of whom accuse her of not treating all buyers equally. She would probably agree with that she discriminates, just not on the basis of race or religion. “I live here,” she told The Times. “I care who moves in, because what happens to these houses matters to me. In recent years, as the likes of Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens have made inroads, albeit minor ones, to the nabe, the Ditmas doyenne has stood her ground from the house where she does her business. I get along with her, but there are people who don’t,” said Julie Kestyn, a long-time competitor. “She’s tough. I’ve been waiting for her to retire for the last 23 years, but why should she?”
She’s the One Holding the Keys [NY Times]
Photo by Seth Kushner
Sorry old lady, steering is steering. If that quote (“she would probably agree with that she discriminates, just not on the basis of race or religion”) came from any of the larger real estate firms everyone would be jumping all over it….
She must approve of my pal Jack and his wife, because they have a beautiful home on that block, which is spectacular.
She looks like one tough old broad. I mean that as a complient!
“Rob, the $29,500 purchase price is $220,432 in 2010 dollars.”
That suggests Rob is correct… no?
I’m sure it’s just her office area that’s cluttered. Real estate does generate a lot of paper – but thank goodness for scanners!
Hmm, maybe I can become her boy-toy and inherit that house for services rendered.
she’s a friend and don’t forget her granddaughter Alexandra Reddish, who does much work now in the same vien….
The median household income for 2007 was $51,000 (almost 10x that of 1959), but the 90th percentile cut-off was $143,000, or 14x that of 1959. Also, notice the ever-widening distance between the median and the top 10%. It’s even more striking when you consider the top 1%. The housing prices are not about the median income, especially in the upper middle-class enclaves.
Yeah, consider the upkeep on a house like that. That red porch deck looks like you could eat off it.
MKG’s house is prime in terms of style and location. Needs updating, yes, but it is worth what she claims – 1.2-1.3 million. BTW, I have been inside her home several times, and it was always clean and tidy. The woman is ninety years old, for God’s sake.