Brownstone Breakfast: Price Cut on Hancock
After being reduced from $1.1 million to $995,000 earlier in the summer, this absolutely gorgeous brownstone at 371 Hancock, which was HOTD in early July, has just gotten another price cut to $935,000. The architectural details in this place are stunning but evidently people are shying away from dropping a million bucks in Bed Stuy–even…
After being reduced from $1.1 million to $995,000 earlier in the summer, this absolutely gorgeous brownstone at 371 Hancock, which was HOTD in early July, has just gotten another price cut to $935,000. The architectural details in this place are stunning but evidently people are shying away from dropping a million bucks in Bed Stuy–even on one of the nabe’s best streets. Think this’ll find a buyer at this price?
371 Hancock Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
HOTD: 371 Hancock Street [Brownstoner]
CHP, I hear what you’re saying about the shooter and the shot knowing each other. But it involved a semiautomatic weapon and could have hurt bystanders.
I live not far from Putnam and Grand, the epicenter of recent crime in Clinton Hill. As a current resident, I can take the current uptick in crime in context–overall crime is down, and most people know where the trouble spots are, etc.
But to someone just beginning to take a look at Bed Stuy real estate who doesn’t know the area well, I would think the shooting might scare the hell out of a prospective buyer.
When judging your safety on neighborhood I think you have to make distinction between some druggie killing another or wife shooting husband vs. someone being murdered for an IPod walking down the street or intruder into someones home.
A murder happens in Bed-Stuy reinforces notion to outsiders that nowhere in vast Bed-Stuy are you safe – and if happens Bk Height diff story.
‘Flight to Quality’ sounds like trite cliche obviously borrowed from Wall Street. Most people buy house for place to live and security and control over ones life.
All neighborhoods have seen prices go up ‘too far, too quickly’. And thats all over the metro area so don’t be so myopic and just think its happening in Brooklyn.
Although it may cost a fortune to buy a house in Ft. Greene and many other areas consider ‘gentrified’ – I think you might be surprised if you read demographic statistics on whole neighborhood – as far as per cap income, etc.
Anyone got a link to news on the Malcolm X shooting? ny1 website only has a small mention.
I completely agree with SuperAnon. I purchased in Bed-Stuy in August of ’05 and according to some folks, I should be staring at close to $300k in equity just over a year later? I think not. And my place is the most BEAUTIFUL in all of BROOKLYN!! …. 🙂
Ok… just a slight embellishment. But the numbers are real.
Flight to quality? I agree. But for many New Yorkers, quality in some of the better nabes is still very far out of reach. Thus BS homes represents “quality” to many families priced out of the more established areas in Brownstone Brooklyn. Nonetheless, this property is very much overpriced. There are better homes on the market in BS on better blocks. No way this sells for even close to $900k. $800k or lower would be right in my book.
Regarding the flight to quality argument, gentrification typically occurs in waves that dovetail quite closely with the state of the economy. Fort Greene went through similar waves before it finally took off for good in the late 1990s. With that being said, home prices in BS have gone up too far, too quickly. A contraction in the BS market is long overdue if not necessary to promote further development in the community. IMHO, downward pricing pressure in BS is in the long term best interest of the community in that it will attract a broader array of families into the area. In ten years, there will be no material difference between Fort Greene, Clinton Hill or “Brownstone Bed-Stuy”.
As a new (I think I’m going to have to stop saying that soon) Bed-Stuy resident, I have a vested interest in the value of properties in the near vacinity. When this home was first listed @ $1.1 and this huge debate came about houses north of Stuy-heights being listed over $1MM etc.etc. I called the broker.
He was arrogant to say the least, using the recent sale of a home on Stuyvesant and Decatur as a comp…
I was like ” Dude, not even close”!! Well, not even a month later the priced was slashed to the more recent $995 and now this.
In my humble opinion, as much as I’d love to see a home in the stuy go for close to a Mill. It ain’t worth it…..YET…. atleast not this place. While the interior is nice and well preserved, the Facade is a wreck. The block is questionable at best. And Thats not to say All of Hancock is questionable. Just like All of Decatur is not Beautiful…(a la closer to Bushwick) But this place is still over priced by no less then $135K
Yea.yea.. Who am I to say blah blah blah…. Well, There’s a much better place over on Putnam between Marcus Garvey & Throop for just under $700. Albeit is a 3 story. But the Hancock isn’t a true 4 story anyway…. Quality Homes is doing the sale.
Sorry to be so long winded… I’ve got time on my hands.. 😉
Meteague is correct about this block of Hancock. The block before it, between Marcy and Thompkins is by far, one of the best blocks in Bed Stuy, if not most of Brooklyn, for architectural beauty and diversity of styles. This block is kinda eh. It’s like they ran out of juice at the corner and didn’t even try. That said, this is a beautiful, albeit overpriced piece of property. I used to live in a very similar sized house a block away, and this sized house can be quite comfortable as a one family, a bit cramped as a two. The ceilings on the top floor are low, especially if you are very tall, and the rooms have that garret/attic feel which is fine for kids, not so much for adults.
Throop Ave isn’t a scenic vista, but isn’t that bad, and can only get better. Interestingly enough, Thompkins Ave in the area of the house, right down the block, used to be one of the most dangerous and scary blocks around, mostly due to the park a block away at Halsey. Now that stretch between Jefferson and Halsey is filled with upscale shops and antique stores and is becoming a shopping hub. It can happen.
Regarding the shooting, it seems to be a case of the shooter and the shot knowing each other. Unfortunate, scary and tragic, but those things can happen wherever the wrong people get together. I would not discount the nabe over that. Bed Stuy is getting to be a better place to live in every day.
About the murder…. that is a real issue in Bed Sty — crime is way down but these violent crimes are a reality – (I was thinking about buying a place near Lafayette and Classon 18 months ago, and was wondering about crime there (near the Police Precinct etc) when a week after I saw this nice place, someone was shot in the head and killed on the corner of Classon and Lafayette at 4:30 in the afternoon. Pretty chilling and in this marketplace…. buyers will be paying attention to this and paying up in other nabes….