Edgy Brooklyn: Risk Factor 7.0
From this week’s New York Magazine… Two kinds of buyers choose the less bourgeois stretches of Brooklyn: the arty crowd in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and (at the wealthy end) Dumbo; and the families that have made a go of areas like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Red Hook, and Crown Heights. Few will do great in a downturn, but the…

From this week’s New York Magazine…
Two kinds of buyers choose the less bourgeois stretches of Brooklyn: the arty crowd in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and (at the wealthy end) Dumbo; and the families that have made a go of areas like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Red Hook, and Crown Heights. Few will do great in a downturn, but the hipsters will be better off than the rest, who are likely to find themselves with no buyers to cover those renovation loans. That’s especially true in Bed-Stuy, with too few newcomers to offset stubborn crime and weak schools. Paying $750,000 for a house here puts you well into a danger zone. Crown Heights is better off, because of better subway access and proximity to Park Slope, but its houses still seem overvalued. A far stronger bet is Red Hook: Though there’s no subway and a huge housing project, it has the critical mass to handle a downturn. Water access, plans for Ikea and Fairway, and a continuing shortage of good properties suggest a real future. Williamsburg will remain a destination for those attracted to expensive vintage clothing and Thai food set to techno, and Greenpoint, next door, is a leafy family neighborhood with loads of owner-occupied three- and four-story townhouses that many brokers believe are still a little underpriced. The first casualties will be apartments around the Lorimer L stop, which lack the nightlife draw. Anyone overpaying for a condo in the Gretsch Building should watch out, given that 10,000 new apartments with waterfront views will be on the market in a few years. As for Dumbo, it’s small enough to keep demand high: It’s there to stay, says appraiser Jeffrey Jackson.
Neighborhood Values [New York Magazine]
I’m glad to see the Brownstoner community embracing abbreves.
i have never said that CH is FG. I said that it is more close to FG and will be more likely to behave more like FG in bad times then BS AND CH.
And i am taking about prime CH wich is Clinton ave, Wachington ave (historic distric) i am not talking Classon.
bksqueeze full of envy
test
Clinton Hill is so NOT Fort Greene (not that I’d want to be in Fort Greene in bad times)
Uh oh, here we go…let the neighborhood-bashing games begin!
I dont think that it is fait to compare Clinton Hill to Crown Hights or Bedford. It is diffrent level of gentryfication. Prime CH is more like Fort Greene (it is a realy an extention of it)
Anonymous:
“with kids”: that’s the key phrase.
Off to the PS’s in Jersey with ya !
Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Bed Stuy, Red Hook… I don’t want to be in any of them if the market turns south. And it doesn’t matter to me if I’m not selling. I’ve lived in edgy areas in not-all-that-bad times and it’s not something I’d like to do again, with kids.