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
Actually works in finance please leave Dave alone. He’s psychotic over his lost in the Mutant Asset Bubble and he must keep his delusion going before the Time-Space Continuum collapses around him.
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
Concerns about gentrification forcing people out are way premature at this point. Rents are low, people who grew up in the area can afford to buy (and I know two who did on my street), and as already stated above taxes are low.
The biggest problems facing low-income owners are the high cost of heat, health problems and no insurance, predatory lending, and fraud.
If Bed Stuy gets more nice restaurants like Peaches, Bread Stuy, and Saraghina, and starts attracting young professional singles (of any color) who can afford high rents, Bed Stuy may go the way of Fort Greene. But for now, rents are low.
Dave,
I said you were talking your book, which you are. And that prices generally don’t reflect the change in the economy.
I won’t be in the market for some time, I could really care less. However, your constant drum-beat for high RE prices is obnoxious. If you’re so neutral, then why was Bab’s purchase in bed sty an important part of your comment? What value did it add?
Oh, and I live on the other side of Atlantic.
“I could have paid more to be elswhere[sic].” Really now? you grace us with your gilded presence. People like you make me uncomfortable with the amount of money I make.
I defend the neighborhood every chance I get. You were ranting about properties, their prices and whether they were or were not smart investments. I responded in kind.
I don’t need to actually defend the neighborhood, it stands on its own merits. I bet you’ve never even been there.
If I didn’t believe in the neighborhood I wouldn’t be there. I could have paid more to be elswhere.
Bxgrl,
Then Dave should defend his neighborhood, not his “investment.” The whole bubble started when, incentivized by government backed programs and institutions, homes became more than places where you sleep, shower, and put your stuff. Babs and all the other smirking cheerleaders got filthy rich off of the massive delusion of over leveraged homeowners. Trying to keep the bubble inflated because your little corner is different is false.
Dave,
You don’t believe those 4 RE “investments” color your comments on this site?
By way of example, Montrose Morris is all about the neighborhood and nothing about the price. That is the kind of information I want. Dave’s “if you were as smart as me you’d buy now too” bs is contemptible.
I can certainly borrow through my HELOC at rates lower than my margin account AND that interest is deductible.
brickoven…I just missed a foreclosure on a condo in Hoboken that was listed for $154,000 and easily could bring in $1,300-1,400 a monmth rent.
That’s what the HELOC is there for if I don’t want to sell securities…flexibility.
“Dave why do you have a HELOC?”
Not dave, but it’s always prudent. Most HELOCS are tied into the prime, LIBOR, or whatever, right now you can borrow money at a rate less than you prime mortgage and have the opportunity to leverage it into another investment cheap.
“It’s the kind of thing that keeps old folks in rent-controlled apartments that are way too big for their needs–older people would love to downsize and stay in the neighborhood but they can’t.”
RF, that doesn’t add up. If they’re staying in their rent-controlled apts, then they’re staying. And they can afford to stay. Good argument to abolish rent control tho. Distortion of the markets, for sure.