Co-op of the Day: 1 Pierrepont Street
Co-op apartments don’t come much finer than this. This south-facing unit at 1 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights has four bedrooms, two fireplaces and killer Manhattan views from the common terrace. It looks to be in pristine condition (though we coulda used some photos of the kitchen and bathrooms) and on a fairly high floor….
Co-op apartments don’t come much finer than this. This south-facing unit at 1 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights has four bedrooms, two fireplaces and killer Manhattan views from the common terrace. It looks to be in pristine condition (though we coulda used some photos of the kitchen and bathrooms) and on a fairly high floor. The listing ain’t for the faint of pocket book however: The asking price is $3,450,000 and the monthly maintenance is $3,518. Anyone know what percentage down is required at this building?
1 Pierrepont Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
3:13 is right: no one in their right mind would buy this or any of the brownstones discussed recently as an investment. This is pure consumption.
When prices are double replacement costs, people find ways to create new supply — DUMBO, new condos, rentals converted to one families, etc. Brooklyn Heights is probably three times the size it was 5 years ago.
And demand will drop as Wall St contracts and Manhattan funny money dries up.
Sooner or later, probably sooner, prices will return to normal equilibrium — it’ll be more expensive to rent than buy and building new stuff will cost more than buying old stuff.
Until then, buy in Brownstone Brooklyn because you love the house and want to spend the money. The money you give the seller and the bank and the coop board is gone and not coming back.
If you are trying to make money, sell your real estate, rent and invest the savings. Or buy somewhere where the prices have already collapsed down to rational levels.
Tax subsidy maxes out at about 25K: you can only deduct $1m mortgage, and anyone subject to AMT can’t deduct real estate taxes. So this place costs you about $170k/year plus the opportunity cost on $1.7m.
it has views of the pierrepont playground and the bay beyond that. see that bldg out the window in the photo? that’s the brooklyn law dorm at the foot of pierrepont. it would have pretty decent views, but yes, seasonable. anyway, WE ALL GOT that their aren’t straight-on views. we’ve been talking about how those apts rarely go on the market.
If anyone’s still interested in the apt, 2:03 was the last person to make a sensible comment on it, and even he missed the boat. The apartment has NO VIEWS! See the descrip, and it talks about ‘seasonal views of the bay’. That means, you can see the bay thru the trees in the winter when there are no leaves. The nice photo is from the COMMON TERRACE! 3mil for an apt in BH with no views? I don;t think so…
3:52 sucks
zzzzzzzzzzz this thread managed to turn a perfectly good listing question into an obnoxious juvenile fight. you guys make me hate reading brownstoner and i like brownstoner. go away all you haters. just go away
There are so many crazies on this board today: e.g.
Park Slope sucks.
No, your neighborhood sucks.
Oh yeah? Well, strollers suck.
No, old people suck.
Not as much as young renters.
No, you suck because your parents don’t support you.
No, you suck because you’re new to this board.
Carpets suck.
Manhattan coops suck.
Brooklyn coops with carpeting suck…
Holy crap! What a group of whack jobs.
3:33 – I’m not disputing the history of dramatic appreciation in NYC real estate(esp since I benefitted from it), but I don’t invest with a rear view mirror either. That history of price increases is not really relevant to a prospective first time buyer’s decision today.
For a typical young professional in New York, buying an apartment right now just doesn’t make sense. First, renting is much cheaper, so they will have more spare cash to invest if they do not buy. Second, NY apartment prices are substantially at risk for falling or staying flat for the next 5 years or so. Third, it is demonstrably true in all markets that putting all of your money into one asset class is a loser’s bet.
So if our hypothetical young professional cannot BOTH buy an apartment AND invest substantially in other assets (this is pretty likely, esp if we are talking about co-ops with a 20% down payment requirement), why should they buy now? I’m not saying don’t ever buy, but it probably does make sense to hang back for a year or two and build up a larger, more diverse investment base. This both insulates them a bit from possible job issues but also will put them in a better buying position later on.
back to the topic: this is a 50% down building. you may very well have that sort of cash but I can tell you the board is fickle. if you did anything wrong to anyone in your past and they find out they don’t care how much money you have, they don’t want to disgrace the building. the super is an a**hole but the views are drop dead gorgeous. otherwise what sort of service do you get for that type of mntnc?