Bed-Stuy: 'Experiencing a Little Bit of a Depression'?
The New York Times took a look at Bedford-Stuyvesant this weekend as an area once considered one of the roughest in the city, but one with a rich cultural history where you can now smell gentrification in the air, mainly via the fragrance of higher-end retail. More interesting than the article’s notes on gentrification is…
The New York Times took a look at Bedford-Stuyvesant this weekend as an area once considered one of the roughest in the city, but one with a rich cultural history where you can now smell gentrification in the air, mainly via the fragrance of higher-end retail. More interesting than the article’s notes on gentrification is how it touches on current home values in Bed-Stuy: “‘We’re actually experiencing a little bit of a depression,’ said Tanya Blackwood, owner of Location Location Location, a real estate agency. ‘We’re back to where people are undervaluing houses—it’s just bananas.’ The neighborhood’s size makes it difficult to narrow down a price range for houses, but livable two-families generally start around $600,000, said Keith Mack of the Corcoran Group. A house in great shape, he said, might fetch $875,000. (Houses in the historic district still command a little more, but there are very few listed.) A perusal of Web sites like PropertyShark.com shows houses trading at or below $600,000. ‘I could’ve given you a general price point a year ago,’ said Lakeisha Edwards, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman. ‘But it’s now really property by property; in between those are so many short sales and foreclosures.'” Agree?
History, With Hipper Retailing in Bed-Suy [NY Times]
Photos by nvrlowdown
Brickoven, that may be so, but Babs did AT LEAST sell her company for 300 million dollars, owns like 5 or 6 properties, and you rent an apartment in Brooklyn Heights. But sure, she’s dumb.
But in terms of this particular television show, I think she needs to stick with real estate.
Babs Corcoran is DUMB!
Many new businesses are opening up and it seems a lot of people are buying houses in the area — the volume of purchases is up compared to other neighborhoods, I think — so it seems to me the area is quite healthy and doing well and only getting better, not in a “depression.”
Speaking of Babs Corcoran, has anyone else seen that new reality show (on Sunday nights) called Shark Tank yet?!?
I caught a bit of it last night and she comes across as incredibly NOT business savvy compared to the rest of the bunch.
I think the Times saw Saraghina opening as a big change in the neighborhood, and decided to write a piece. The story seems to be the correction to the yuppie spaceship article people on this board have been saying they want. Especially in its comment that the area is huge and encompasses many neighborhoods.
The real estate agent’s estimates of housing prices seem disingenous and way too high. Prices on regular (non foreclosed) properties have come down about 20 percent just like everywhere else. There’s no special housing crash in Bed Stuy. But it is for sure full of more REOs than the “prime” areas the NYT usually writes about.
just my 2¢, regarding the original post, I think it’s deliberately provocative, as many of them are, designed to generate a heated debate. Whoever he is, jscheff is a master puppeteer!
serpentor: This is my block. Why are you obsessed with this place? (Please tell me it is not the purple/pink walls.) What are your better half’s concerns?
I’m obsessed with this place:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/604-halsey-street-brooklyn
which my better half is less impressed with. If you’re looking in Bed Stuy, this is worth checking out.
“I cant remember them ever being even a little negative on where they are writing about. Can you name an area where they were this negative? Why did they bother”
I was going to post and wonder why they never seem to write about any other neighborhoods other than ones in Brooklyn – when was the last time you saw an article about Gramercy Park or College Point?
But it’s pointless to act like the Times is on the leading edge of this, whatever the topic here really is. B’stoner and other blogs (where are you, other blogs) are the ones with the insider story. Two things to remember: insider stories translate very differently in mainstream circles; and B’stoner is not beholden to the ideas published in ANY place else (meaning, we can comment where we want but let’s not get bent out of shape over just the usual).