Co-op of the Day: 62 Montague Street
A sponsor unit at 62 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has just hit the market. The 1,350-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room and an eat-in kitchen. The sponsor has clearly just redone the kitchen and bathrooms—not particularly well, but not offensively either. While the listing wins big points for architecture and…
A sponsor unit at 62 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has just hit the market. The 1,350-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room and an eat-in kitchen. The sponsor has clearly just redone the kitchen and bathrooms—not particularly well, but not offensively either. While the listing wins big points for architecture and location (steps to the promenade), some folks won’t be thrilled with the fact that it’s on the ground-floor on the street side. For $1,425,000, think that’ll be a sticking point?
62 Montague Street [Squarespace] GMAP
62 Montague Street [NY Times]
This building has very narrow apartments. They have loads of detail, but the layouts are claustrophobic. The bedrooms are also extremely small. Heavy on charm, but cramped.
First of all, this is Brooklyn Heights. It is not Fourth Avenue -soon to become fabulous because of the Hotel Le Bleu- it is not Fort Greene -home of some of the most notorious criminal coalitions in Brooklyn- it is not even Ocean Heights -somewhere near Broadway in the very remotest part of the backwoods. So things are valued differently.
The maintenance is in line with neighborhood statistics, I agree that square footage is a crock and you have to judge for yourself. This is a step away from the Brooklyn Esplenade (promanade to you tourists) and from the Gold Coast of Brooklyn. Are you tyros trying to compare this property with some dump in Flatbush-land? Forget it hons.
You who bought in the backwoods have to sleep in the backwoods. Whoever buys this, will sleep in the Heights.
Lump it. Life is hard.
5:36 here – Yes, you can compare based on square footage. Assume they are all equally inaccurate. Not perfect admittedly, but a decent back of the envelope comparison none the less that I’ve found very useful in my initial research.
And once you do have a chance to actually look at the apartment and get a feel for the space (as I assume any buyer would), you will then have a sense of how inaccurate the listed square footage is and can revise your initial impression of whether a particular apartment is over/under priced.
Regardless, I’ve looked at a lot of apartments in BH (I live there and am an open house junkie) and $1000/per REAL square foot is VERY expensive, even for a good layout. And the Montague St. listing isn’t even a particularly nice apartment or in a particularly nice building.
SPONSOR UNIT=TRANSFER TAX IMPOSED UPON THE BUYER… Be Careful!
that makes no sense 5:36. you can compare an infalted 1500 sq ft (that’s actually 1100, not that you’d know it) and an honest 1300 sq ft?
it’s about layout, not sq ft. 3 bed, 2ba in a classic 7 layout gets 1.4ish and has recently on a place on Hicks (@ pierrepont) and Clark (@ hicks). And there is a premium on a 3rd bedroom. Trust me, 500 sqft places aren’t going for same psf as 3 bedrooms.
Do brokers inflate square footage on their listings? Almost certainly. But that does not mean that comparing price per square foot AS LISTED is not a valid way to compare apartments if you are a prospective buyer. Obviously, some apartments can justify a higher per square foot price if they have nice fixtures, pratcical layouts, a good block, low maintenance, etc etc. But as a starting poitn in evaluating whether a buyer’s ask is reasonable, price per squre foot is perfectly valid.
And $100 per square foot is way too high for any Brooklyn co-op, no matter how nice (and this certainly doesn’t impress me that much). You can get much better value than that in BH.
5:14,
There are always eccentric folks who don’t want what most people want. These people are usually very self-righteous too.
We humor them but no one takes them seriously so their opinions are not usually taken into account when making a point or engaging in intelligent discourse.
Guest 2:11: “Lets say you’re getting 6% after tax on your 400k in some pretty average hedge fund”
your numbers must come from some alternate universe in which the subprime mess hasn’t been sending your “average hedge fund” into a death spiral. Not so easy to get 6% after taxes these days.