Corco Cutting Prices East of Classon
It can be hard to spot a trend in the real estate market until after the fact, but we couldn’t help but notice when we were perusing Natefind yesterday that Corcoran had cut prices on six of its townhouse listings in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights within the past week. (The biggest cut, both in…
It can be hard to spot a trend in the real estate market until after the fact, but we couldn’t help but notice when we were perusing Natefind yesterday that Corcoran had cut prices on six of its townhouse listings in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights within the past week. (The biggest cut, both in absolute and percentage terms, was at 36 Monroe Street.) Is this a coincidence, do you think, or could there have been some word from on high that drove these cuts? Taken as a whole, do the cuts signify anything about the market in those neighborhoods or is this bad news balanced out by bidding wars at places like 100 Decatur?
56 Monroe Street [Corcoran] GMAP
36 Monroe Street [Corcoran] GMAP
470 MacDonough Street [Corcoran] GMAP
1300 Carroll Street [Corcoran] GMAP
1416 Sterling Place [Corcoran] GMAP
610 Eastern Parkway [Corcoran] GMAP
Does anyone ese have a problem with the term “retard(s). Just seems like there are other, less offensive, words that can be used. Thx
During summer time real estate sales slow down + people are just more selective at this stage of the real estate cycle. I visited the property on MacDonough and it was clearly mispriced at the onset. Buyers are more educated in this market, and they know time is in their favor when an average property hits the market. That said there’s a lot of people looking for well maintained quality properties with original details in BedStuy and whenever one comes to market on a nice block it receives multiple offers. I don’t believe you can buy one of these 4-story brownstone for $800ks anymore. Lets face it that’s the price of a one-bedroom apartment in manhattan, and you only got a 10-min commute to get there. You’re lucky if you get one for $900-950k and expect to have to do some work, but what you’ll get is well worth the effort. I did it last year, and know people that are interested to do the same. So despite all the nay sayers, if any readers are looking to sell a nice solid original brownstone, on a nice stuy/bedf hght block, please provide your info.
8:37PM, for your edification:
Nabe = Neighborhood
Hood = Neighborhood
Therefore, Nabe = Hood
Dumbass!
Choose a culture “nabe” or “hood” you are confusing me 7:49; and 7:16, lots of words but pure bs, gentrification is not what makes a neighborhood good – you should travel more.
I agree with a lot of what 7:49 says. Ultimately the market decides though – buildings will sell at what the market will bear. No broker has so much power that they can ram overpriced properties down a buyers throat. I made the point about Corcoran overpricing because I have watched this company closely in the area (FG, CH, BS)and their strategy is always to test the upper end of the price band and very often to price much too high, requiring these price cuts to move property, but this long sales time is ultimately damaging to the seller, who is now dealing with a distressed property which gets on Brownstoner as a white elephant. This hurts sellers. I have seen this time and time again with them (experienced this as a buyer and once upon a time as a seller before I knew better). I think it is better to test the waters with a lower pricing; if the property is attractive enough to the marketplace, it will sell quickly and over the asking. If you do a search of this site for House of the Days and subsequent reductions and assorted white elephants and laughing stock pricing, it will be Corcoran’s.
Yes, most of us love Bed-Stuy but let’s give the nabe a fair chance and allow it to grow slowly and more organically. Yes, sellers name their price but brokers should also give them a shot of reality too.
A cooling market in the hood is only in the nabe’s best interest.
Sorry. Another repost but there’s no choice. Too much ignorance out there. MMMMMMuuuuussstt stop them! LOL!
Corcoran got a wake up call. I have friends at the firm and from what I know upper management finally pulled brokers aside and gave them a version of this:
“I agree that greedy brokers are killing the momentum in upcoming nabes such as Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights North. To quote a comment from one of yesterday’s thread on CHN, “Fort Greene is successful because prices stayed low enough for a long enough period of time to bring into the nabe a critical mass of gentrifiers to really make a difference. Newly minted fringe nabes are having a more difficult time keeping up with the gentrification momentum because prices have risen too high too quickly.
If a buyer is paying $1M to move into Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights North and PLG then that property should be in mint/move in condition. What’s holding up and coming neighborhoods like BS, CHN and PLG is greedy brokers who are gasing up the heads of sellers by telling them that their homes should command Clinton Hill/Fort Greene prices; nabes which are also predominantly black with equally superior housing stock.
But the problem is BS, CHN and PLG is about 5 to 7 years behind the curve. No one paid 2003 prices in Fort Greene in 1998. But folks are being asked to pay 2012 prices in BS, CH and PLG in 2007.”
I couldn’t agree anymore. I love Bed-Stuy and I think that it’s a beautiful community with major upside but what the fuck is going on with management at Corcoran? Why price out the very same people who have taken Bed-Stuy to the level where the nabe can command $1M for a single family home? Bed-Stuy has about 6,000 brownstones, more than any other community in the country. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell 1,000 homes at $600k-750k as opposed to 25 above $1M. At a certain point, you will shut out everyone looking to move into the neighborhood.
Let’s be realistic here, there is a threshold breaking point where folks with money will not live in an area that is predominantly black and still riddled with issues of crime, drugs and poverty. For the right price, people will live anywhere, but let’s be mindful of the fact that growth and development should occur slowly and organically. Yes, Bed-Stuy brownstone are equal to the best townhouses found in Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights. However, Bed-Stuy is still undeserving of even Fort Greene and Clinton Hill prices until the nabe further improves.
Is this fair? Yes. Not everyone is planning to take the money and run in Bed-Stuy (as was the case in Fort Greene). There will still be some longstanding homeowners who will not sell – just yet. For example, those who needed the money and sold $25k brownstones for $750k in Fort Greene still made out like bandits. On the flip side, those who didn’t need the money held out and now have properties worth over $2M. That’s life but still everyone wins.
The real estate boom in Brooklyn is the greatest form of income redistribution in favor of people of color in the history of our nation. It’s allowed relatively low income black families to reap substantial windfalls in real estate. However, the natural progression of this phenomenon can only continue to occur and help thousands of black families if pricing occurs sensibly and intelligently. Again, current pricing models used by the big brokerage houses are killing this momentum by putting the wagon in front of the horse.
If 1,000 brownstone trade at $650k-$750k in Bed-Stuy thereby creating a critical mass of new entrants who will bring about new energy and a different level of commitment into the community, the next 1,000 homes easily sell between $750k and $1.25M, if not higher. However, Corcoran appears more interested in seeing 1 or 2 homes trade at the $850 – $1M mark and immediately pricing all subsequent homes above $1.25M. What’s the justification for this practice? Shouldn’t hundreds of homes trade within range before up ticking prices to the next level of demand?
However, selling two or three homes in an area for about $900k does not justify raising prices to $1.2M for an average BS home. we are not talking about a substantial number of sales to insist that demand is so high that it dictates that prices go up 20% every year. Only a small handful of brownstones are coming up for sale on Bed-Stuy’s prime areas (e.g., Stuyvesant and Bedford Heights), yet with each passing sale (after languishing on the market for months at a time) home values are being raised by $100-$200k. That’s insane. At this rate when the 100th brownstone trades hands in prime BS since 2000 (probably about 2010), by logical extension you can expect the seller to get north of $3M for the house which would leave the remaining 5,900 homes in BS worth north of $2.5M. Do you really think this makes any economic sense? Bed-Stuy has too many brownstones and the area is too far behind other more established hoods to command these prices. I live in the community and I want prices to go higher as much as the next guy but I understand that it must happen in an organic and pragmatic way – slowly overtime. At 800k+ this house would be priced accurately. $1.175M is retarded. If that is indeed the market then the grand homes on Stuyvesant Avenue should be worth about $2.5M.
If you bought you house for under $100k and are looking to sell a townhouse for $1M+ in less than perfect Bed-Stuy then I expect the house to be in triple mint condition with a well appointed kitchen and modern baths with state of the arts appliances and amenities. But typically you don’t get this in the hood. What you get is a great house on a beautifully kept block but with a kitchen and bath that hasn’t been upgraded in over 30 years (if lucky, you get 1990’s Home Depot).
Fort Greene and Clinton Houses command the prices that they do because those coming to market now have traded hands two or three times since 1990 and many are being sold with awesome original details, professional kitchens, modern baths and beautifully done outdoor spaces. It’s only now that new buyers in BS are spending $500k+ on top notch renovations. When those buyers sell I can indeed support those homes trading at a high premium but now is not the time. $1M+ for an average home in a relatively tough community, hell no (unless in Stuyvesant Heights).
For $1M+ and for all of the headaches associated in being a high paying pioneer in an upcoming nabe, I expect central air and all of the bells and whistles. If not, I expect a deep and substantial discount compared to homes in FG and CH which would put this house at around $800k. In FG and CH the trailblazers got a “first to market” discount advantage, in BS you’re expected to pay above market.
In today’s Bed-Stuy where newcomers comprise well under 3% of the current nabe, there is no critical mass of gentrifiers in the nabe to justify these prices. Yes, the nabe is getting there but it’s a long way away. And for those who will complain that it’s racist to demand that black homeowners NOT get prices close to FG and CH then I will offer you this fact: the people who are paying $800k for those townhouses in the hood are not other residents in BS – it’s newcomers and yes, trailblazers. If left to those indigenous to the area, we wouldn’t pay more for a brownstone then what the rent roll would cover – that’s old school BS economics! Just keeping it real…..”
THIS IS FOR ALL BROKERS: REAL ESTATE 101 – BROOKLYN STYLE!
Mr. B, sorry for reposting but there’s so much bullshit on this board that I need to respond but don’t have all day to debate with these fools.
It’s the same retards so I’ll repeat it again:
“I don’t get some of the posters on this blogsite. If people choose to spend their hard earned money and live in an area that is slightly more dangerous than other areas in brownstone Brooklyn simply because they like the homes or feel that they can get more bang for their buck there, what difference does it make to anyone else? I seriously do not get the condemnation and overblown hysteria on this board with respect to great communities like Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights North, PLG and Clinton Hill. Six years ago Fort Greene would’ve been on this list too. But if you spend any time on Dekalb Avenue at Chez Osker, you will see people who live in the neighboring public housing complex strolling throughout Fort Greene like anyone else. All of the neighborhoods east of Flatbush Avenue are predominantly black and have some serious social and economic issues. Nonetheless, these nabes are being integrated/gentrified. Some of the poorest of the poor live in these housing projects but for the most part we’ve been able to coexist. Why should Bed-Stuy be treated or looked at any differently. I don’t get it.
I bought brownstones in both Fort Greene and Clinton Hill at a time when both nabes were considered undesirable and dangerous by many of my white friends. And quite frankly, I couldn’t care less what they thought of me or where my home was located. At least I owned and wasn’t renting, like 100% of them were doing at the time. Now I’m sitting on over $4M dollars of equity and both of my properties which are multi-families are being paid for by my tenants. Recently I’ve purchased homes in Bed-Stuy because that is where the value is (Crown Heights North being the other). Why do some people on this board seek to knock down nabes where other people choose to make their homes or their living? What difference does it make to you? Is there an opportunity cost that I’m not aware of?
All I can say to anyone looking to live in Bed-Stuy is that they should do their research. However, I would say the same thing to anyone looking to buy in Park Slope or anywhere else. Bed-Stuy is the largest neighborhood in New York City. It’s the size of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill combined. The same way that there are differences and variations in these nabes there are differences in Bed-Stuy too. I would agree with the above poster that there are sections of Bed-Stuy (e.g., Stuy Heights and Bedford Heights) that are as safe as the best areas of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.
In terms of proximity to housing projects, as someone already stated, there are a slew of housing projects in brownstone Brooklyn and none of them have had any significant adverse impact on the surrounding brownstone communities. In the case of Bed-Stuy the notorious and dangerous Marcy, Sumner and Tomkins projects are located on the other side of the Bed-Stuy on the Bushwick/Bed-Stuy border. IMHO, unless your townhouse is located smack dead in the middle of a public housing complex (very unlikely) most people, with the probably exception of those homes that sit directly across the street, have nothing to worry about. The Pfizer mansion on Washington Avenue just went into contract for $3.2M and it’s located two blocks from the Lafayette Houses on Classon. There are homes surrounding Fort Greene Park that fetch north of $3M and are located one or two blocks away from Ingersol and Whitman. Despite continuous reports of drugs and shootings at the Gowanus and Wykoff houses, property values in neighboring Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens continue to soar.
Yes, there is crime everywhere in NYC and yes, some neighborhoods are more dangerous then others — the market obviously reflects this fact. Yes, Bed-Stuy is not for “everyone” but no neighborhood is. Don’t like it? Don’t live there. Period.”
Crown Heights House Tour – Oct 6th
Bed Stuy House Tour – Oct 20th
See for yourself, and reach your own conclusions about the worthiness of both nabes. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.