371-clinton-sold-042811.jpg
This’ll probably show up on next week’s Biggest Sales list but seemed to merit an immediate post: 371 Clinton Street, the four-story, 15-foot wide Cobble Hill house that hit the market on March 2 and was featured as a House of the Day shortly thereafter, went into contract within three weeks and closed last week for its asking price of $2,695,000. Pretty impressive!
371 Clinton Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. FYI – for parents with kids in District 15, middle school is not really a problem. A small handful leave for private, but not many, because the middle school options have become so much better that they are arguably as good academically as many of the Brooklyn privates (the main difference being the far larger class sizes in publics). The middle schools are selective, and some of the best ones (like MS 51) choose kids who are not just bright, but also don’t have behavioral problems. There are also some wonderful middle schools that don’t even require your kid to be an academic star, like MS 447 and New Voices, but who still attract many top students because the schools are so appealing. There’s even a very good charter school for D. 15 kids, Brooklyn Prospect. And, of course, D. 15 students can also opt to attend one of the citywide middle schools like Mark Twain, ICE, NEST, and so on, but unlike kids who may live in Brooklyn Heights and are zoned for D. 13, they have so many closer options there’s no pressure to do so.

    This is still a very high price for a narrow house, but I think many families now prefer Cobble Hill to Brooklyn Heights. Although I agree with CGar that I’d take the larger HOTD in Park Slope over this, too. It’s also in D. 15.

  2. I fully agree with Donald on this. If even only 5% of new construction apartment owners 5 years later want to move into house that would be quite an additional demand for the limited supply.

    Having said that for 2.5m (or even 2m) one can get already quite a house (not mansion) in the tonier area of Westchester or Nassau. It still surprises me that parts of Brooklyn are this desirable compared to some options in the suburb.

  3. To understand the supply / demand dynamic you really need to attend an open house at one of these properties. I was in 371, 369 and 432 Clinton during their initial open houses. According to the listing broker at 432, over 100 people signed in for the open house. He estimated about 300 people were in the building during that 2 hour period. Quite something to see. This property was in inferior condition when compared with 371 and cluttered with stuff. I thought 371 had the right layout (upper triplex, garden level rental) and was in relatively good condition.
    The macro trend Adam Dahill mentions above has not abated in any way, as some thought it might. The demand for 1- to 2-family townhouses specifically is far in excess of supply. And there is almost no way to add to the supply of townhouses in most brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods. They become available through generational family attrition or relocation – a slow and currently infrequent occurrence.
    Families that have already formed or are in the early stages of taking shape look to Brooklyn from Manhattan for a better quality of life – walkable, lower density neighborhoods with character and charm. It is easy to understand how this translates into upward pressure on the price of certain types of housing.

1 5 6 7 8 9 13