Real Estate Market

While the number of comments in the Listings section hasn’t exactly reached server-crashing levels yet, there has been some useful feedback. Our favorite so far? Commenting on this 4-story brownstone in Clinton Hill, Breuklyn says, “House does not have a roof…needs major major renovation…you’re better off buying a shell in Harlem.” Ouch. Tell us what you really think.
Listings Blog [Brownstoner]
St. James Place [Ronda Savoy Realty]

We don’t have much to go on, but this place jumped out at us as we were sifting through the last couple days of Craigslist postings. Given that there is no website link, no interior pics and only a cellphone number for some dude named Bill, we suspect this listing is probably ripped off from another broker. All we know is that it’s a 2-family brick in East Flatbush that’s a hell of a lot nicer from the outside than this similarly priced new-build monstrocity also on Craigslist. We’d be interested in hearing some details about what this area is like–housing stock, safety, etc. We’d also like to know who the listing broker is.
East Flatbush [Craigslist]

We like the look of this classic 4-story, 2-Family brick at 142 Bergen Street in Boerum Hill. From the photos provided, it looks to be in good shape and to have retained its original character. We don’t know this block specifically, but the neighboring buildings appear to be attractive. There’s an open house scheduled for this Sunday at noon, but if anyone’s been inside this place yet, we’d like to hear about it. From what we’ve seen so far, we don’t think they will have too hard a time getting the asking price of $1.595 million.
142 Bergen Street [Douglas Elliman]

The Sunday NY Times featured an incredible looking 4-story house at 142 MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights that is on the market for $699,000. In the same family for the past 60 years, the house is dripping with old-school details, including pier mirrors, mahogony bannisters and multiple mantels. Even though the house probably needs $200,000-$250,000 of love, this is the kind of place we drool over. Given some of the charmless crap that is on the market in Bed Stuy right now in this price range, this place looks pretty tempting. Even if we didn’t have enough dough for the reno right now, we’d rather camp out in a place like this than exist in some of the interiors that the flippers are putting in these days.
On The Market [NY Times]
124 MacDonough [Corcoran]

Back in early November we expressed our skepticism about the $1.5 million price tag that had been slapped on this 5-Story, 7,500-square-foot place on Madison Street in Bed Stuy. Nice place, but that’s a lot of dosh. Sure ‘nuf, we pulled up the listing yesterday and the asking price had been cut to $1.3 million. Given the momentum in the nabe these days, we won’t be surprised if they find their buyer at this price. Anyone have the skinny on activity surrounding this prop?
Bed Stuy 4-Family [New Millenium]
Highest Price in Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]

We heard a rumor that a bidding war erupted over this place this weekend. It’s a 2-floor, 1-family brick house with nice deets on an extra large lot. We hear the block is quite nice, too. Asking price was $1,175,000. Last we heard the leading bid was at least $1,300,000. Does anyone know the address? How about if there is an accepted offer yet?
Prospect Heights Striking Townhouse [Aguayo & Huebener]

We can’t get enough of these limestone beauties these days! The exterior of this four-story, four-family place looks perfect and appears to be on rather a grand block with attractive adjacent houses. In addition to the unusually deep front yard, there is also a back yard. The Harborview Realty website, where the house is listed at $795,000, is frustratingly thin on the details–no interior pics, only the assurance that it’s in “very good condition”–so we’d appreciate hearing from anyone who’s actually been inside. Not knowing the layout, we are curious what it would cost to turn this into a two-family.
Homepage [Harborview Realty]

Another beautiful structure in Crown Heights. According to the listing, the two-family property has been fully renovated, with particular focus on maintaining the original architectural details. The photos reveal wonderful wood beams, fireplaces, and original built-in book cases. New kitchens and bathrooms. This place sounds fairly priced at $899,000 given other recent listings in the area but we would love to hear from someone who knows the Crown Heights market well and can provide some comps.
868 Prospect [Ettelson RE]

Regular readers know how positively disposed we are towards Lefferts Gardens. Unfortunately, like just about every other neighborhood, bargains are few and far between. This 20-foot wide, 4-story house is a slightly grander scale than the 3-story, rounded front rowhouses that typify the area. It has tons of old-world charm (fireplaces, stained glass windows, pocket doors) and a sizeable rear yard to boot. Listed for $895,000, the 3,750 square foot house is priced at about $240 a foot. If the interior is in decent shape, that seems reasonable to us; if it’s going to require a lot of cash to get it in shape, we’d think twice.
Midwood Street Townhouse [Halstead]