Co-op of the Day: 123 Henry Street
Three things this one-bedroom co-op at 123 Henry Street has going for it: (1) Good location; (2) Nice casement windows; (3) Decent floorplan. Negatives: (1) Zero architectural detail; (2) Home Depot-esque kitchen. Oh, the kitchen. Why do people persist in pursuing these short-sighted attempts at money-saving renovation? A little imagination and creativity go a long…
Three things this one-bedroom co-op at 123 Henry Street has going for it: (1) Good location; (2) Nice casement windows; (3) Decent floorplan. Negatives: (1) Zero architectural detail; (2) Home Depot-esque kitchen. Oh, the kitchen. Why do people persist in pursuing these short-sighted attempts at money-saving renovation? A little imagination and creativity go a long way. In this case, if the kitchen were compelling, it would help downplay the basic-ness of the rest of the apartment. The way it is now, the kitchen only serves to underscore the lack of charm. Not to be all negative: As we said upfront, this place has some good things going for it, enough probably to fetch pretty close to the asking price of $449,000.
123 Henry Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Exterior photo by Scott Bintner for PropertyShark
At 6.5% without PMI, this is indeed getting close to rental value (although not as close as McFly or 11217 calculate, because they are treating the downpayment as free, which is silly).
Not going to make you rich, but if you can hold on through the downturn of the next few years, you won’t be far behind the renters, either.
And in the meantime, you can struggle with the moral dilemmas of renovation…
WOW McFly…that adds 86 basis points to the cost of the mortgage. I figured it was getting expensive!!!!
Biff, you are my arch nemisis!
Daveinbedstuy: I can tell you that I tried to get 85% financing to purchase a $410k apartment and couldn’t do so without purchasing PMI, which would be about $250/m.
Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned knock ’em down, drag ’em out mortgage discussion!
Mortgages obviously come in all shapes and sizes, but I was assuming 20% down plus a 6.5% mortgage, so it’s around $3k. Factor in the deductibles and it’s around $2300 a month. I don’t know what the rental market is in BH so I can’t really compare.
I lived in a building with casement windows on the Upper West Side for years and loved them.
The Griffin, one of the best doorman buildings in Ft. Greene on the corner of Lafayette has casement windows…I almost bought a place there back when I was looking.
In this case, heat is covered in the maintenance, so while it might not be the greenest apartment in the world, I know of very few people who can’t stand to have a little air coming in from outside when the heat is on in the winter.
I have to open my window about 3 inches in the dead of winter to get some of the heat out!
I thought this building was a rental. It looks like a rental from the outside -and that is not a compliment.
Those casement windows are hideous to live with. drafty, noisy, no place for an a.c. and basically not right for the date of the building. The apt. is a nice basic starter apt. but it is not worth it if most of the building is still rental.
There are no banks willing to lend at more than 80% LTV in many parts of Brooklyn now. I have friends looking at 2-3 families in Ft Greene and Bed Stuy areas.
I haven’t taken out a mortgage in many years with anything close to 80% LTV so I’m also wondering what has happened to the cost of PMI recently?? Is it still used only for LTV of 90%? What do they charge now??