Co-op of the Day: 515 East 7th Street
If we were childless, this two-bedroom at 515 East 7th Street in Kensington would be looking pretty good to us as a one-bedroom conversion. Check out that floorplan: Knock down that living room wall and the small wall in the dining area and you’ve got yourself quite a grand entertaining space, with a terrace to…
If we were childless, this two-bedroom at 515 East 7th Street in Kensington would be looking pretty good to us as a one-bedroom conversion. Check out that floorplan: Knock down that living room wall and the small wall in the dining area and you’ve got yourself quite a grand entertaining space, with a terrace to boot. The maintenance on the 1,247-square-foot apartment is $819 (not bad at all) and the asking price was just trimmed from $379,000 to $365,000 after ten weeks on the market. Interesting?
515 East 7th Street [Abacus] GMAP P*Shark
For this price, I’d better buy this place in Kensington: http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/309105-coop-160-ocean-parkway-kensington-brooklyn
A little smaller (1050 sq/ft), 1 bath, no terrace, but the maintenance is $504 and it is located in the more prime area of Kensington (above Church Ave). Went into contract yesterday though.
Brownstoner:
There are several post-war buildings on Manhattan’s Sutton Place South with similar plans — and a fat multiple of this one’s price.
Apartments this vintage, well planned like this, can be very livable. Expecially good: the entrance off the foyer, so visitors don’t see the whole place from the door but gradually enter increasingly private family rooms.
The architect for this number did a little thinking. From the pix, the building looks to be mid-fifties, when there was still the residual influence of pre-war, middle-class apartments by architects like Emery Roth. (In fact, I know a post-war Roth building on Fifth Avenue whose plan is very similar.)
The price is open to negotiation. But the apartment has “good bones.”
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
dunno about enlarging the living room – you can steal part of the foyer for that (what are you going to do with an 11×11 foyer?), or incorporate the dining room.
I would be tempted to lop off 6 feet from the bigger bedroom and turn it into a 6×11 study, with bedroom 2 reduced to 11×11 (still a decent size for a child’s room) with both rooms still having a window.
Good for the Cortelyou Rd stuff but a bit far from the subway. Price, as ever, should come down.
“What would a comparable 2 bed apt in this nabe rent for?”
Probably more like $2000. Look at all that room. Two bathrooms. Terrace. Three blocks from the good stuff on Cortelyou.
Looks like a nice pad to me, but I also believe that the ask needs to come down a ways. Just wait. It will. $350k by January. $330k by April…
Subway access is not so hot, but otherwise this seems to be one of the more reasonably-priced 2 BRs I’ve seen in a while. that’s not to say it couldn’t stand a further shave – what couldn’t, in this city? But this same apartment would be asking like $800k if it was in park slope.
Another omission is the fact that in 30yrs. you no longer have to pay the mortgage. Only maintenance and taxes. A renter will have to pay rent forever.
kdabrowski – I think you’re neglecting to factor-in the mortgage interest deduction.
I’d say that if done properly, the math would actually favor ownership – or at least be a wash.
And that’s leaving out the intangible preference many of us have for owning…
As for the question of building equity, you’re also leaving out the fact that a mortgage payment includes pay-down towards principle – i.e. equity.
Not to whip out the ‘bitter renter’ tag, but I’ve noticed lately that many, many, many posters are making these sort of fundamental omissions. Wonder if this is yet another poorly-reasoned attempt at ‘proving’ that renting is better than owning…
agreed w/ kdab and bolder. should be at least $100k below current ask. would probably still take a long time to move even then. what person resigned to not live in “prime” brooklyn would just have $70-80k laying around and not have a better use for it (e.g. earning interest in a cd)?
That’s kinda far down Ocean Pkwy. for my taste. I wouldn’t consider that “prime” Brooklyn, for better or for worse. I don’t know how much appreciation Ocean Pkwy saw in the past 10 years, but you can figure the depreciation will be substantial.