Research

Well.....it's kind of far out and there are few amenities. As for crime, it's impossible to know without living there since the precinct won't let you look at weekly crime maps, even though this is public information. I was there looking at a house for rent once at about 7 pm in the winter and saw a crime in progress (a man beating up a woman on the street). I reported it, and a cop drove by and I flagged them down. I get the impression there is more crime in that area than above Myrtle. Is this to say it's terrible or would affect you? Maybe not. Who knows? The area around the Dekalb L in Bushwick and Ridgewood is very nice. We looked for over a year between Flushing and Myrtle along the L train and couldn't find what we needed there, ended up moving to Bed Stuy. There are lots of three families, a few two families, but all the apartments are floor-throughs, and we needed a duplex. If you can live with a floor through, I recommend that location. If you found a really great place around Irving Square, it might be worth it. But the Stuy Heights area is definitely better right now.

For one thing, the police don't usually live in the neighborhood. Have you looked in Stuy heights...the area just orth of Fulton park at the Utica stop on the A train?

A refi shouldn't show up as a sale. Some recent sales way below market can be from a divorce settlement - deed in both names transferred to one spouse for about half the value. You can look up the records (deeds, mortgages, etc.) http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/Coverpage.dll/index

It's applied by FDNY post fire or building inspection. The diagonal line from (bottom to top) indicates to firefighters which direction to head when entering space. An X indicates to responding companies not to enter (surround and drown). If there are the initials R.O. accompanying the box it indicates the roof is out.