Flashback: Clinton Hill Twenty Years Ago
A reader (a lawyer with Lexis/Nexis, we can only assume) emailed us this New York Times article entitled “Gentrification: The Case of Clinton Hill” published on February 8, 1987. The whole piece was interesting, but the rapid price appreciation that happened in the space of a couple of years in the early 1980s particularly jumped…
A reader (a lawyer with Lexis/Nexis, we can only assume) emailed us this New York Times article entitled “Gentrification: The Case of Clinton Hill” published on February 8, 1987. The whole piece was interesting, but the rapid price appreciation that happened in the space of a couple of years in the early 1980s particularly jumped out at us:
As in other rapidly gentrifying areas, almost every new sale sets a new record for the block. Naida McSherry, a local broker who specializes in brownstones, can rattle off a half-dozen recent sales that reflect phenomenal appreciation in value: from $75,000 to $292,000, from $55,000 to $285,000, from $68,000 to $214,000, from $68,000 to $200,000, from $115,000 to $310,000. In most cases, the lower price was for an unrenovated four-story brownstone sold in 1982 or 1983 and the higher price reflects the last year’s sale of the house in renovated, or somewhat improved condition.
Percentage-wise, those are bigger increases than have occurred over the past 5 years, we’d guess. We’re curious to know what Clinton Hill brownstones were going for in the early 1990s–it couldn’t have been any more than these prices.
oops, I mean “not” able to hold onto it. North slope is great too anyway, so at least you are still in a nice brooklyn neighborhood.
Well, times have changed thankfully. No need to go to Park Slope for amenities for those living in Clinton Hill. Too bad you were able to hold onto the property…
To iac: Naida McSherry had an office in that brownstone mansion on Washington between Lafayette and DeKalb. She lived in an apartment on the top floor of a building that I believe is on the corner of DeKalb and Clinton that was apparently the first co-op building in NYC (and she had fabulous views of Manhattan from her living room). She was a real Clinton Hill booster and really sold us on this neighborhood that we hadn’t known anything about pre-1990. She retired a few years ago, and I don’t think she lives in the neighborhood anymore, but she deserves a lot of credit for making Clinton Hill what it is today.
Am I kicking myself that, when my husband and I split up in the mid-1990s, I let him buy me out for a pittance? Indeed I am, financially speaking … but it made sense at the time, and I basically have no regrets. I left the neighborhood before the restaurant renaissance on DeKalb, and found the neighborhood inconvenient as a single mother — I felt like I was living in the suburbs, going to Park Slope to shop in the food co-op, to take my kid to private school, etc. Other things drove me out as well: I was broken into through the garden door by someone who literally broke the wooden door down with a crow bar; my ex was robbed at gunpoint with our toddler in tow right in front of our house; my mother was mugged on the corner of St. James and Clifton; etc. And don’t get me started on the G train….
I later paid an arm and a leg for my 2,000 square foot garden duplex in the North Slope, but I feel safer here, and the much-discussed amenities that make or break a neighborhood are right around the corner. (My neighbors in Clinton Hill were friendlier, though. We were only the second white family on the block at the time, and our black neighbors were so warm and welcoming, bringing pies when we moved in, inviting us to barbecues and baby showers, etc. I miss that!)
203k scandal wasn’t in this area at all according to news reports at the time. we did a 203k finance at the time and there were very few hud personnel working in the area then. the one guy we finally tracked down to come out here to oversee our signoffs to payoff the contractors at each step of the way (with our money that they held on to until they felt like it) hadn’t ever done a job in or around clinton hill before.
i think these numbers probably were outdated by the time they were published. we remember done, done large homes in the area selling for above $500k at the time. this info. doesn’t make sense. remember when they are talking messed up houses that needed reno they were really, really messed up. not at all like what you see today. and it also used to be hard to get a loan for a home that was such a giant wreck. took at lot of time and effort to get the house financed and then fixing it up was grueling because again of the financing concerns.
Look at how the neighborhood has changed in the past 10 years, it’s mind-boggling. Why are people sending their kids to schools outside of the neighborhood? People love this neighborhood, and I see so much real estate excitement, but it doesn’t seem to be hand-in-hand with community involvement. Get involved people.
If all the people who read at this site started sending their kids to these schools and getting involved we would have some unbelievable schools around here. How ’bout it, folks?
Anonymouse 4:05, that WAS beautifully ironic. Maybe YOU need to start attending school around here.
No point in us arguing over this. Clinton Hill residents recognize the need to improve schools. As far as other amenities, they are already there so I’m not sure what Anonymous at 5.59 is talking about. Whatever, no worth going on about really, it’s not as if Clinton Hill is just starting to be gentrified. Maybe you just haven’t visited Fort Greene/Clinton Hill because, with the exception of the need to improve the public schools, comments about lack of amenities (more upscale amenities, not just fast food joints and bodegas) and the neighborhood are incorrect.
Clinton Hill has amenities – restaurants, grocery stores, cafes etc. It is not like Lefferts Gardens at all in that sense. The schools are what need improvement. PS 11 is getting there with a lot of parent involvement.
See that’s the thing I don’t get about some of the rationalizations on this board for buying in CH, Lefferts, whatever. Oh, there aren’t good restaurants or shops but I can go out in Park Slope (or Smith Street, or whatever). Oh, I don’t like the local grocery stores, but you can get FreshDirect. Oh, there aren’t good public schools but I’m going to send my kids to private school anyway. And yet we’re really glad we moved here for… the community!
God bless you if the architectural details and grand space are worth it to you but I think there’s something to be said for buying into what’s outside your four walls as well as what’s within them.