A Pair of ProHi Price Cuts
After last week’s carnage, you’d think there would be price reductions left and right, but it appears that more of a wait-and-see bunker mentality set in in the short run. Corcoran did take out the axe, though, on two of its townhouse listings in Prospect Heights. The four-story house at 368 Park Place (left), which…
After last week’s carnage, you’d think there would be price reductions left and right, but it appears that more of a wait-and-see bunker mentality set in in the short run. Corcoran did take out the axe, though, on two of its townhouse listings in Prospect Heights. The four-story house at 368 Park Place (left), which started out at $1,850,000 in April and had already been trimmed three times, got another $75,000 nudge down to $1,525,000. The professional-looking makeover at 210 Prospect Place (right) had its first cut since coming on the market in July at $2,495,000; it’s now testing the waters at $2,250,000.
368 Park Place [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
210 Prospect Place [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 210 Prospect Place [Brownstoner]
Miss Muffett, I agree with most of your analysis that I have seen re prices being too high but you cannot expect your desired price moves to come through in one fell swoop.
A market for houses is constantly being made. When each house is sold, and buyer and seller have agreed to meet on a price that they are both happy with.
Think of it like shares. You might think that the shares of company X are worth $10 when they are trading at $20. Even if you are right and it makes that move in a straight line, it’s not going to make that move overnight (unless it has a profit warning). All along the way down, you’ve got a series of buyers and sellers willing to deal at each price point and they all have different motivations.
Now such a move is not going to happen overnight even for shares – one of the most liquid markets in the world where a deal can be struck lightning fast and the transaction costs are low. Real estate, where the “stock” is not fungible, with high transaction costs, and lengthy legal procedures is not going to come close in terms of efficiency.
You will get your price – you just have to be patient about it.
Miss Muffet, you compare Brooklyn of 1987 to Brooklyn of 2008 when you wouldn’t have walked down any street in most parts of Brooklyn in 1987 in the daylight, much less bought a house here as you yearn to do now. For over a decade the culture all over the country has changed completely from being repulsed by urban city living and fleeing to the suburbs en masse, to preferring the city. A choice you yourself have made too. In fact you are desperate to buy a house here. Surely that makes the housing market in NYC and Brooklyn different now than it was in 1987.
Then you say all the property gains in the last 10 years in Brooklyn are “paper gains only”. Quite aside from the fact that the value of all things is “on paper” except solid gold, you are totally discounting major changes even in some of the best neighborhoods. Not even 10 years ago in North Park Slope our old coop was known as the big drug dealer corner of the neighborhood with illegal cockfights in the store there. Now it’s a gourmet deli and a sushi restaurant. Between what you say and what you are actually doing which is shopping for a Brooklyn brownstone and fully willing to pay at least $1.5 million for it, you don’t make sense.
again, you are making my point for me. you *do* seem to be making assumptions about these sellers and/or generalizations about all sellers’ motivations that aren’t supported. it is bizarre to take a hyperbolic example and act as if it can be applied across the board to conclude that all sellers and these sellers in particular are greedy or foolish. your anecdotal personal information may be interesting to hear about in context of the more general discussions about the direction of the market, but when there are actual homes with actual sellers, you just can’t assume that the same factors apply. and when that assumption is the repeated basis for concluding people are greedy or foolish, i take issue.
market up 11% today. does it makes sense? do I DESERVE it? nope, but I’ll take it and I’d be stupid to take less for my gains today than every other guy at the table.
OK, I disagree, I will just respond to your one last post. I am making a statement about high prices in general right now, based on *facts* that I know about what the purchase prices, renovation prices, and recent comps are for similar properties. I am also NOT calling people I know greedy or foolish, just using what I know about their properties as the basis for facts (that is, comps). That is, for example I know of specific people whose properties have nearly tripled in value during the last 10 years and while they have no intention of selling, so these were paper gains only, by the same token, the loss of value they may now suffer would be on paper only and would not matter to them. Of course, I cannot make assumptions about THESE sellers specifically since I don’t know them personally.
Oh man, I’ve gotta get off Brownstoner – I just got my threads confused – so Ringo, I just realized I posted answers to your questions twice here. OK, I’m going to do something else now!
no, it’s not just because your views are different. i disagee with lots of people without issue.
didn’t mean that your motivations are craven (as i doubt they are) but rather that your postings make it seem as if you assume that sellers’ motivations are craven. and, again, what i said is irritating is that you don’t know (or at least offer) anything about THESE homes while at the same time suggesting that THESE sellers are acting with greed and/or foolishness. it’s fine for you to suggest that people you know, friends of yours, etc., are greedy or foolish based on what you know about their situations. it’s the extension of that conclusion to these sellers that i object to.
Ringo – I just answered your question about whether places sold, on the thread about the Prospect Heights price cuts. For those who aren’t reading that thread – the answer to your question is: actually, no, not all the properties did sell – quite a few were simply taken off the market since I suppose the sellers were hoping things would get better soon. A lot of other properties we’ve been watching only sold after deep price cuts, or wound up accepting offers well below ask. And all of this was *before* the current crisis.
But I’m guessing MOST sold, right Miss Muffett?
And I agree, what anyone paid 10 years ago is meaningless.
Things around me (dumbo, heights, cobble hill) have been selling pretty briskly near ask except for the places really mispriced from the outset. What comes next is the question.