Condo of the Day: 655 Washington Avenue, Apt. 3B
Things are going better than we thought at The Modern Post, the ten-unit condo building at 655 Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights. According the broker, four units are in contract and another two units have “contracts out.” One of the remaining apartments, a 582-square-foot one-bedroom, is asking $379,000. The ceiling heights and windows are nice…
Things are going better than we thought at The Modern Post, the ten-unit condo building at 655 Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights. According the broker, four units are in contract and another two units have “contracts out.” One of the remaining apartments, a 582-square-foot one-bedroom, is asking $379,000. The ceiling heights and windows are nice in this place and, if you are looking for a modern condo, the finishes seem well done as well. Any takers?
655 Washington Avenue, #3B [Aguayo & Huebener] GMAP P*Shark
I think you’ll find that the 70% means that the banks require 70% to be in contract before they’ll close. They’ll make their financing conditional on 70% in contract, so once the seventh of 10 condos go into contract, the banks will allow you to close. If you’re looking at this situation, you have to make your offer conditional on financing and closing conditional on the developer having 70% of the units in contract.
I’ve lived in other cities where the banks won’t provide construction finance unless at least 50% of the units are in contract – mind you in those cities there are significant incentives for buying a unit off the plan (usually transfer taxes are lower if the property hasn’t started construction and increase as construction progresses).
i can’t imagine anyone who has actually seen these apartments happy with the construction quality.
i can’t imagine anyone who has actually seen these apartments happy with the construction quality.
“Ugly ass building, cramped, small, cheap looking cubicle condos with beautiful windows looking out onto the chop shops, tire stores and hair braiding shops of lovely Washington Ave.”
“You just described nearly every block in Williamsburg,”
And much of 4th Ave in the Slope.
if I had $300k in cash lying around, I’d be using it as a huge down-payment on a $600k-$800k unit somewhere else, not buying a condo here.
“How does a new condo ever hit 70% sold if banks are requiring 70% sold to loan money? What, they’re expecting 7/10 of the people buying in a building to make an all-cash payment?”
Precisely–and there’s the rub. Catch 22. These will sit. Anyone with $300K in cash lying around aint moving to Washington Ave.
No – “sold” means in contract, in this context. What they expect is that buyers will sign, make their downpayments, then everyone waits around until the critical mass is reached, and lenders allow individuals to close. Of course that doesn’t stop anyone who IS a cash buyer from moving in ahead of all that. And it isn’t necessarily 70% either. It can be 50%. It can even be less – but then you are usually looking at jumbo rates and downpayment requirements that are unrealistically high for many people, unless the buiding got project approval with a lender a long time ago.
“Ugly ass building, cramped, small, cheap looking cubicle condos with beautiful windows looking out onto the chop shops, tire stores and hair braiding shops of lovely Washington Ave.”
You just described nearly every block in Williamsburg, but there the same box is “worth” twice as much.
Go figure.
I don’t like new condos, but these look better than most to me, and I really like Prospect Heights a lot. A couple new bars have opened on Washington just in the last couple months.
Can we talk about the enormous address on the side of the building? Other than that, this looks like standard new-condo fare, but the address thing is a bold architectural choice. It seems very seventies to me.
“How does a new condo ever hit 70% sold if banks are requiring 70% sold to loan money? What, they’re expecting 7/10 of the people buying in a building to make an all-cash payment?”
Precisely–and there’s the rub. Catch 22. These will sit. Anyone with $300K in cash lying around aint moving to Washington Ave.