Cheap Today, Cheaper Tomorrow?
“There is a great opportunity to purchase real estate today,” Wendy Silverstein, the executive vice president of capital markets at Vornado Realty Trust, said at the conference. “Unfortunately, if you buy property today, it will probably be cheaper tomorrow.” – TRD
Hi Ms Muffet,
I’m curious if you’re only looking in Park Slope or if you have looked farther afield (Fort Greene and Prospect Heights)?
It seems you have been following the market closely as a prospective buyer for a good long while. I’m curious how buyers are viewing things in the brownstone areas of Brooklyn right now.
How much would you say a 4-story double duplex should go for in northern Park Slope, prime Prospect Heights, or prime Fort Greene currently?
miss muffett, i have been reading this site for a long time, and i don’t recall any user who gloated about the bull market more than a fraction as often as you gloat about the bear market. (and as a prospective buyer during much of that time, i had just as much reason as you to chafe at gloating-bull comments.)
We can’t expect “rational” from anyone with a vested interest, buyers or sellers. But with the economy going nowhere and layfss and order cancellations aking headliine news every day….
Ask some real estate professor from Dakota or something.
Wasder – I’ve said this before, but will say it again. We priced conservatively when we sold and both parties got a good deal. Am I an altruist who will give things away way below market value? No, but I was realistic to price low-ish when the market was starting to turn – in other words, I *was* aiming to choose a rational price given the changing market conditions. Were I selling today, I would have priced *much* lower since the market has changed so much. And you know what? I still would have done just fine since I am trying to trade up, and the market we are now trying to trade up has gone done too (though at the time I sold, I was trying to secure enough money to trade up in *that* market). I’ve also said before that the buyers of my place, whom I stay in touch with, remain happy with their purchase since it was still lower priced than anything comparable at the time, and they intend to stay long term. I’m not pretending to be the arbiter of what is rational – the market is telling all of us that, every day that passes. But certain sellers are clearly not listening.
you suffered all the way to the bank, miss muffett. the rest of us should hope to suffer the way you have. seriously. you need to get some better problems.
Hate to contribute to a “pile on ms muffett” situation because I certainly understand where you are coming from on many levels but I think its a bit of a stretch to beg people for “rational” pricing when you yourself benefited from the “irrational” pricing of the bubble. Do you think your buyers wish they could come back to you and demand a more rational price? And “i disagree” is very correct when he/she says that what is rational to you is not likely to be a universally accepted position.
I disagree – I, and many others, suffered through plenty of owners’/sellers’ repetitive gloating since this blog began, and endured ever climbing definitions of what was a “rational” price. Shoe’s on the other foot.
it’s not for your benefit – it’s so the rest of us don’t have to hear it anymore.
p.s. – unless you have a crystal ball, what you think is rational isn’t necessarily so.
I disagree – well, thank you. But actually, there are a bunch of other schools we like! And contrary to your post, we are not expecting a hand over, just a rational price.