Is Ditmas Park "fringe"?
We’re looking to buy a coop in the greater Ditmas Park area. Do people think this is a nabe where we’ll risk overpaying in the coming months? Better to wait? Things seem to be selling briskly there, but would be interested in your opinions. For what it’s worth, we love it there and would love…
We’re looking to buy a coop in the greater Ditmas Park area. Do people think this is a nabe where we’ll risk overpaying in the coming months? Better to wait? Things seem to be selling briskly there, but would be interested in your opinions. For what it’s worth, we love it there and would love to be in a place of our own sooner rather than later. Thanks in advance!
By the way, Cortelyou Road sidewalks are wide enough for mom’s pushing strollers and people just strolling.
I saw a very pregnant Park Slope double Bugaboo stroller mom on Cortelyou the other day. I remember her telling me two babies ago that that Park Slope was the greatest place on earth and how she would never leave it. I asked her why she was slumming it in Vict Flatbush? But as I stated the two rugrats in the stroller and the one in her belly answered my question. she purchased a home with five bedrooms to accomodate her growing brood. If she left Park Slope when I did, she’d have enough equity to move back into a larger place in her beloved Park Slope. You on the other hand sound like you want to be here and we would love to have you.
I’ve been in DP for over 25 years and there were black homeowners here even back then. It is a truely diverse neighborhood and overall politicaly liberal. That earlier post was totally false.
It is the best of Brooklyn.
Totally agree on all comments on how heinous the commute is from Park Slope. The R is the slowest ride ever, and the 2/3 is a faster train but never comes, and is packed full when it does. We’re on the Q too, but in PLG, and it’s such a relief to be able to get to Midtown so quickly after years of enduring the subways in North Park Slope.
i too lived in the slope for a long time and just got sick of how far it was to too many places in manhattan. moved to williamsburg and it’s such a relief. can actively use the city even on the weekends and the commute is so much faster.
Whether you work downtown or midtown, as a previous poster stated, the commute is probably about the same if not quicker from Ditmas Park. There are three different express bus lines that come down Cortelyou and one that goes down Coney Island Ave. Each of the lines have “Midtown only” and “Downtown only” routes that go onto the Prospect Expressway and breeze down the HOV through the BK Battery Tunnel. I took the bus initially as a flook. I was running toward the train station and the driver thought I was running for the bus and stopped for me. I rode in and decided to continue to take it to work. I do take the train home though. Some people do the opposite and prefer the relaxed atmosphere of the bus for their evening commute. The money that I saved on a place allows me to have such luxuries as paying for the express bus service.
I’m with 6:01 pm — we have been in the neighborhood for four years and bought because of the incredible value (a whole house, plus a big garden AND a driveway — although these things are obviously not available to the OP looking at a coop) and the friendly (and diverse!) feel of the neighborhood. We haven’t missed the Slope for one second and neither have our kids. The new amenities appearing in the nabe are just icing on the cake.
I have to pipe up about the commute. The Q to midtown takes me less time than it used to take me on the 1/9 from Park Slope. My office is now downtown so Vic Flatbush was a no brainer (as the express bus flies through the tunnel and you are at work in 20-25 minutes, vs. the 35-40 to downtown it took me from Park Slope on the subway). Anyway – in the grand scheme of things and even ignoring the fact that Vic Flatbush has an express bus line as an alternative, an extra 10 minutes on the subway between the Q stop in Park Slope and the Q stop on Beverly or Courtelyou was worth it to me and many others to get a much better home for much less money.
Buy it, unless you have a rent stabilized place somewhere. Rents are crazy and likely to continue to with all of the “scared” by media folks. You can still own something and pay less than renting in park slope. regardless of what the naysayers say – it is a great neighborhood, we’ve lived there for many years first in coops and now in a house. You save a lot of money NOT paying off soemone else’s mortgage (renting) and the prewar coops are so much better in quality than anything new you could get in park slope.