Carroll Gardens Blogger Gives up Her Neighborhood for...Queens
When Sally Jones, a Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn home renovation blogger who writes Renov8or, started looking to upgrade from a one-bedroom (pictured above) to a two-bedroom apartment, she quickly realized that the neighborhood, and even the borough she had long called home, was no longer in her price range. Here’s her tale of finding her new…
When Sally Jones, a Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn home renovation blogger who writes Renov8or, started looking to upgrade from a one-bedroom (pictured above) to a two-bedroom apartment, she quickly realized that the neighborhood, and even the borough she had long called home, was no longer in her price range. Here’s her tale of finding her new home.
You know the neighborhood in Brooklyn that everyone loves right now — the one near Prime Meat and Buttermilk Channel and Black Gold and Trader Joe’s and Fairway? The one with all those brownstones with front gardens and bathtub madonnas? Yeah, Carroll Gardens. That one. I’m moving out of that neighborhood and I’m heading for Queens.
Crazy, right?
It’s not that I don’t love Carroll Gardens anymore. It’s not the much-discussed-among-the-natives “French” taking over the hood thanks to the immersion schools (though my friends with kids tell me that’s a real game-changer). It’s not even the much-maligned “hipsters” moving in. I welcomed the great restaurants and food shops and vinyl record stores, hey, even the hipsters. Live and let live.
It’s not any of that. To paraphrase a failed candidate for governor: The rents are just too damned high!
And as rents climb, purchase prices follow. A good thing for me The Seller. For me The Buyer, not so much.
I moved to CG in 1998, when anything south of 4th Place was verboten. Really. It’s hard to believe it now, but as a single woman buying her first apartment, I was warned against anything south of the “Place” streets. And my friends in Manhattan — they had to think twice about attending a party if it meant crossing a bridge. But, long-time renovation junkie that I am, raised at the heels of parents who upgraded every home we lived in, I recognized the potential of CG south of the Place Streets (then still called Red Hook) and I honed in. Price per square foot? Check. Proximity to Manhattan? Check? Ethnic diversity? Check. First rung on the property ladder.
None of which, by the way, is true of the nieghborhood today. For someone looking to buy their first apartment right now, Carroll Gardens is not your right place — unless you have a trust fund or a guarantor.
My first purchase in Carroll Gardens was a walk-up one bedroom in a sponsor controlled co-op on Clinton Street and Luquer Street. (I later learned it had been the home of playwright laureate Tony Kushner, who lived there with his sister). There was a slight risk for my investment. The co-op had no board in place — we newcomers had to form a board and wrest control from the sponsor. But, just $13K down got me in. And I ran with it. With a few minor upgrades — I installed upper cabinets in the kitchen while my dad tiled over the old checkerboard linoleum, hung french doors, and put in a washer and dryer — I sold that apartment a few years later for 3x what I had paid for it. (Thanks, Dad!)
That funded my next home, a one bedroom + garden in desperate need of a kitchen and bath reno. This one was beyond Dad’s help (he lived 1,000 miles away). But I found a great contractor in the hood, and we elevated that apartment to a grand level.
Fast forward to today and my need for space has changed. I met a guy and we acquired a cat — and now I need someplace to house all his guitars… some place that isn’t the living room. But when I looked around Carroll Gardens to see where I might next put my nest egg, it was with the sad realization that we are priced out. A one bedroom + garden, no matter how stupendous I made it, won’t cover the cost of a two bedroom.
So I started casting around for the next “real estate frontier” — and found it in Jackson Heights, Queens.
I know Jackson Heights well. My best friend in college lived in The Towers, and I was invited for all those holidays that I couldn’t make it home to see my family.
Thanksgiving, Easter, New Years. I have very happy memories of the neighborhood and the elegant apartment of my friend’s family. If you aren’t familiar with The Towers, it’s prewar luxury at it’s finest: Four bedrooms, formal dining room, fireplace, maid’s room, butler’s panty, private gardens. Through the years, I learned all about Jackson Heights history. It was the first planned garden community in New York City, and with the rise of the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, just 15 minutes to midtown by train. Blocks and blocks of grand-scale prewar apartments that were built to house families, and with full-staff maintenance teams and co-op boards preserving and protecting these buildings throughout the ages.
What I still don’t understand is why these co-ops are so underpriced compared to Brooklyn — grand architecture, price per sq ft, lovingly maintained buildings, 7 stops from Manhattan. What more can you ask for?
Honestly, I have not paused to figure this all out. I simply saw what I wanted and snatched one up.
Last week my offer on a two bedroom, 1000+ square foot co-op apartment (pictured above) was accepted. I am already lining up my contractor, engineer, and inspector — and I will share my details as soon as I have the deal sealed — and plan to document every step of my loving renovation. This apartment is going to be a show-stopper!
My message to anyone looking to buy: Jackson Heights is the next New York City real estate frontier.
If you want to see for yourself, just follow my breadcrumbs…
Moving-From Carroll Gardens to Jackson Heights [Renov8or]
Carroll Gardens photo: David Castillo/Blue Barn Pictures
My husband and I moved to JH from Cobble Hill in 2008, similarly fed up with the ridiculous real estate prices in that part of Brooklyn but also disappointed in how homogeneous and yuppified the area was getting. We loved the prices and spaces here in JH, as well as the community feel and–as another poster noted–the “authenticity” of the neighborhood: It’s just a regular middle-class, down-to-earth, melting-pot kind of ‘hood. To me it feels like the real NYC, honestly. And I think no matter how many reformed Brooklynites move here, it’s going to more or less stay that way. Which is awesome (although I’d love to see just ONE bar with good beer! Apparently commercial space on 37th Ave. is impossibly sky-high).
Also, the diversity IS a bonus for many people, I think, because the huge confluence of cultures here, in such a (relatively) small area (JH/Elmhurst), is so unique. We’re both big travelers, and this place just feels like home. While we particularly love the food and exploring new cuisines in our own backyard, we also love the thought of raising our son in such a multicultural environment–something that was lacking in my own upbringing.
P.S. Does anyone else find the title of this post slightly offensive? Like it’s SUCH an unbelievable idea to move away from CG for Queens? I mean, this is a Queens website, right??
Er…it’s simply a fact. Older folks from Brooklyn/Manhattan who have never… been to Jackson Heights…and rarely to Queens…have that attitude about it. They simply aren’t aware of the vibrancy and unique atmosphere…Queens offers. My guess is that their views come from another era? The 80’s and 90’s? (I wasn’t in NYC then…so don’t know what Queens was like)…Younger people…simply look at what’s here now…and can appreciate the here and now of Queens.
So nice to see so much Jackson Heights love on here. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for over 35 years. It has actually become even more diverse over the years, and of course now we not only have the excellent ethnic restaurants, but coffee shops like Espresso77 (as mentioned by J), weekly greenmarket in Travers Park, fabulous Table Wine on 37th off 79th (plus calming, welcoming Inner Peace a few doors down) as well as the wonderful things we’ve had for decades like our local library and beautiful post office (and the local public school I attended was truly great). Anyway just wanted to respond to LJR’s post that I had a pre-war 3BR in landmarked Linden Court, which is in the 80s, that also has a garage and a gorgeously maintained block-long garden (designed by The Towers architect). I realize it wouldn’t have met LJR’s criteria of elevator, 2 bathrooms, and in the 70s, but it was an incredible space with windows in all 4 directions, and sold for way under $500K (reiterating Sally’s point that the breathtaking housing here is perplexingly undervalued for NYC) Now we’re in an adorable row house in the area, but as in most real estate deals, we gained a lot, but also lost some things too (like the extra light and the dependable dumbwaiter!)
I do think we’re talking past each other here. You hear “diversity” and think a buzzword about varying skin tones and nothing more, but I suspect that when Sally says it (and certainly when I say it) it means a lot more than that. JH is culturally rich–immigrants from all over the world who have brought their cultures with them and made a home out of this neighborhood. No one ethnic group/culture owns the neighborhood–it’s a really rich and diverse blend–that’s part of what is so appealing about the character of Jackson Heights.
The key to your perspective is probably summed up in the last sentence of your comment. You are used to diversity and maybe resent the fact that it’s being commodified as a real estate amenity. I get that. But as half of a mixed-race marriage with a mixed-race child, ethnic diversity IS a huge thing on our check list. And a big part of the reason we left CG and moved to JH.
It’s astonishingly undervalued because it is not palatable for upwardly-mobile white people from middle America who are uncomfortable with difference. I spent eleven years in CG before moving to JH. A big part of the reason is that I’m in a mixed-race marriage with a mixed-race child. We wanted diversity. Also, cost/space. Like you said, JH is pretty gentile, or at least established. The businesses are not hanging by a thread and leases/buildings can’t be bought up for a song. Or, not the songs you could get in CG West/Red Hook ten years ago. The commercial sphere caters to the population, which is largely NOT white and hip, but multi-ethnic and family-based. I can see why people attracted to Brownstone Brooklyn would give pause. JH can be “smelly,” “messy” and complicated in the ways that all multi-ethnic city spaces are—you have to be the kind of person who sees the diversity as a positive, not as something to be “cleaned up”, because this diversity is not going anywhere anytime soon. Given the stability of the commercial enterprises and the high rate of home ownership, I’d think it would take more like 20-30 years to really white-wash a place like JH. That being said, for those who appreciated the amenities of Brownstone Brooklyn, the smattering of small businesses bringing a hint of that feel to the area will probably be successful, but only if the people who want those services do in fact move here. There isn’t exactly a huge market in JH for $25 plates of fried chicken when you can get a meal for your whole family at Pio Pio for the same price (less sangria, natch ;-). My two cents as a recent emigre.
I’m not sure you get my point. It’s not that not everyone has ethnic diversity as a checkpoint on their list. It’s just that for ethnic diversity to be on a checklist at all is superficial. There’s more to a neighborhood than just the color of the skin of the people that call it home. Unless of course ethnic diversity means more to you than getting to live in a crayola box – because that’s what I imagine people get excited about when they talk about the ethnic diversity of where they live or work or like to hang out.
Can I ask what are your reasons for why ethnic diversity is important to you?
I’m sure they are good ones. It’s just that when people talk about ethnic diversity as a “thing” it turns me off. Maybe this objective of obtaining a life in an ethnically diverse community is lost on me because I’ve been a part of one my whole life.
Yes, we have the second bathroom (my top priority) and a sunroom, although that IS our second bedroom. The units that have 2 full bedrooms plus a sunroom go for more than half a mil. We also have a working fireplace. And an elevator (though we are on the first floor anyway so we only use it to get to the laundry room in the basement, take out the trash, etc.) And, of course, the block-long central garden.
There was a lot to choose from when we were looking, too, but we quickly settled on our priorities: second bathroom (we’d had one for 23 years and I was not going back–we are a family of 3 and I thank myself for insisting on this every single day), location close to the express subway trains (for us, that meant in the 70s), and a garden.
That narrowed the choices because there are not many apartments that have the second bathroom–and some of those that did were in the 80s, not the 70s. There were some buildings that were in the 70s, had the 2nd bathroom…but did not have the garden. Or an elevator–also a must-have on our list.
Now I wish we’d added a garage to our list–but we would not have been able to find a place with the entire list. You have to choose. The place I know of with a garage does not have a garden.
Anyway, we fell in love with the layout and flow of the apartment, the period charm, the moldings, high ceilings, French doors, and then we found we couldn’t even consider the apartments that did not have all of that. Even though they were a good hundred grand cheaper. It would have been hard to come here and not choose one of the apartments we really loved. So we indulged ourselves. I just wish I had an extra hundred thousand dollars to renovate but we have accepted that we will be living in a genuine antique!