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!
“It’s totally the best neighborhood for white people who don’t want to live in a neighborhood that feels to black (hence, “unsafe”), so let’s not fool ourselves.”
No–it is way too close to a vast expanse of black neighborhood for that. If you don’t want too many black people you would move to Windsor Terrace (maybe too $$$ at this point) Kensington, Bay Ridge or even Sunset Park if other brown people don’t freak you out.
At any rate, I don’t really get the point of your argument. Do white people have racial anxieties? Sure. Not exactly a news flash.
I saw some mind-bendingly beautiful prewar coops in Ditmas last fall at incredible prices and was very tempted…but in the end, I decided it was too risky (for an apartment purchase) and too far of a commute. I’ve lived in Park Slope for years and I’ve always been struck by how really quite far away it is from Midtown, and Ditmas is significantly further away. I’d really think about that–if you commute into Midtown, you’re really looking at a lot of commuting time. It has many pros: beautiful buildings, very solid amenities on Courtelyou. I say if you fall in love with a place, want to think of it as more a home than an investment, it could be a great place to live.
It may not be predominantly Black but it is not predominantly white. There are more people of color – Browns, Yellows and even Beige than whites. Newflash… NYC is not the place to be if you are trying to get away from people of color. According to the statistics the entire cities so called minority populations are now the majority. I could think of many great reasons to live in any of the Victorian Flatbush neighborhoods and it being “totally the best neighborhood for white people who don’t want to live in a neighborhood that feels black hence unsafe” would not be one of them.
Ditmas Park is more white than Crown Heights and Bed Stuy. It’s certainly not a black neighborhood, even though it’s close to Flatbush. It’s totally the best neighborhood for white people who don’t want to live in a neighborhood that feels to black (hence, “unsafe”), so let’s not fool ourselves.
After being priced out of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights and other neighborhoods, we decided to look at Ditmas. It certainly doesn’t have as much of a vibrant commercial scene as other popular Brooklyn neighborhoods, but what convinced us was the price (nice 1 and 2 BR co-ops available for well under $350K) and convenience. Taking the Q to midtown Manhattan from Newkirk takes about as much time as taking the F train from 7th Avenue in Park Slope. There’s a food co-op (with no membership requirement) and a weekly farmer’s market that will only get bigger as time goes on.
Also lots of new places seem to be opening all the time, catering to an ever gentrifying neighborhood. I got the sense that one year from now this up and coming neighborhood will have up and come, and it will get harder to find affordable places.
The real estate market might go south, but not to the point that those $850K co-ops in Park Slope will drop to $400K and all the artists and school teachers will finally be able to move in. Even in a down market, a neighborhood like that will still be too expensive for most middle class people and the only thing that will happen is that those expensive apartments will stay on the market a week or a month longer than usual.
That’s where I think neighborhoods like DP will still find willing and able buyers who will, in turn, fuel the need for the staples of gentrification (coffee shops, restaurants, etc.). Yeah, a single person in his 20s probably wouldn’t want to buy a co-op there, but for couples in their 30s, the neighborhood makes sense. If you had a choice between a 45 minute commute to midtown from New Jersey (car or NJ Transit) or the same commute via a subway, which would you choose?
Unlike Windsor Terrace and more like a rapidly changing Bay Ridge–Ditmas Park is NOT very white. That is simply falsehood. It is a decidedly mixed neighborhood and a day walking around along with a pretty cursory look at census figures will confirm that. As for Republican–you have got to be kidding me.
Winsor Terrace and Bay Ridge are very different from Ditmas where it has been at least 20 years or more since the neighborhood has been all white. Or don’t you count people who live in apartment buildings as being part of the neighborhood? Ditmas Park has had both a Democratic (Black by the way) congressperson and council person for the last 15 years, so it is far from all white and conservative. It is like choosing the suburbs but better because it is easily accessible to transportation that will get you to the city in 45 minutes or less depending on where you are. The poster stated that they are not interested in a house so that point is moot. Many young people buy here because it is still affordable and nice. Many young people without children have even purchased houses that needed renovation because they wanted workshop/studio space – Art, music, weaving etc.. They bought while the prices were affordable. I am sure young people who bought in Williamsburgh when it was still affordable were asked why they would buy there. It was far from transportation without any ammenities but they needed studio space and made it there own.
Ditmas, Windsor Terrace and Bay Ridge are longtime very white, conservative Republican neighborhoods. It’s changing, but that’s the history, let’s face it. We liked Ditmas, but found many houses needed a ton of work because people were selling them after living in them 30 years, which made the renos unaffordable for us. Also my husband insists on living somewhere he can easily walk to a good fast subway line. Ditmas is essentially like choosing the suburbs. Which is exactly the appeal when someone is buying a big house in a good school district with a driveway for a car, but I agree with the other person here, I don’t know that I see the sense for a young person to buy a coop there. If the coop is close to the Q and Cortelyou Road, go for it, if not then you should choose an area with more amenities near an express subway.
Please ignore the comment at 8:11. Let’s not even give it any more thought. Victorian Flatbush is an extremely diverse neighborhood as you probably know already. By diverse I mean not just people of African descent but literally people from every corner of the globe. I agree with the above poster who stated that they loved the neighborhood just as it is. If good things happen here in the future, great!