House of the Day: Pushing $9 Mil on Willow Street
Although we doubt there’s a single person reading this out there who can afford the $8.995 million price tag, it’s always fun to see how the other 1% is living. As we’ve discussed before, we think pricing in this range is a lot more random, given the less efficient market and the arguably different decision…
Although we doubt there’s a single person reading this out there who can afford the $8.995 million price tag, it’s always fun to see how the other 1% is living. As we’ve discussed before, we think pricing in this range is a lot more random, given the less efficient market and the arguably different decision criteria of extremely wealthy buyers. So while it’s entirely possible someone might drop this kind of dough on this place, we wouldn’t bet on it. A year ago, maybe. But maybe not. Despite the 7,200 square feet, the 25-foot width, the unbeatable location, something doesn’t feel quite right to us about this place. We suspect it’s the recent renovation that, in our opinion, did not honor the house’s history enough. What are we referring to? The tile in the entry way and bathrooms, the doors leading out the terrace, the built-ins in the upstairs bedroom. (To be fair, the kitchen looks very nice, though, and the parlor floor looks to be largely intact.) Perhaps we’re nit-picking, but at that price, we’d want things to be perfect. Then again, if you can afford that number, you can probably also afford to renovate it to your own taste. Are we just being a grump here or do others share our take? Is this price achievable in the current market environment?
71 Willow Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Someone asked what kind of people live in the Heights. Brooklyn Heights has lots of long term residents — people who were pioneers at one time, who took a chance on living there when it suffered from the same crime problems we associate with the frontiers. It really has a village feel and has become pretty affluent — lots of people who work in the Financial district and go one or two stops. Brooklyn Heights is also the cosmic headquarters of the Jehovah Witnesses, who came to some kind of peace with the neighborhood by not ringing goddamn
doorbells on Sunday mornings and not building any more residences. They have several hotel like residences and local planning boards said no more. If you compare it to Manhattan, it has an East side feel compared to Park Slope being more WEst Side. I can’t say Brooklyn Heights is cool, hip, diverse, cutting edge on anything, brimming with energy and newness. It has crappy restaurants (except for Noodle Pooding) and OK services. But it is pretty, peaceful, the Promenade is just beautiful, especially at night (that 12+ million place looks like another overpriced deal, but it is on Columbia St facing the harbor and you can’t find a more beautiful view of NY Harbor in NYC in my view.) But Brooklyn Heights has a kind of staid eeling; maybe it’s the heavy concentration of Wall Street professionals. There are many clubs for proper old ladies and old fashioned men, and old Protestant churches (forget the denominations) like St. Annes, Plymouth (lots of DAR ladies), and others. There’s the Cadman Plaza complex which is Mitchell Lama on the North side which is middle income; the old St. George Hotel which partially burned down 7 or 8 years ago is rebuilt and has fancy dancy condos and part of it has migrated from a pretty edgy HRA SRO to dorm rooms for surrounding University students. There are two Catholic Churches, Mt. Sinai Synagogue, and an Maronite Orthodox Church, all very active. I lived there happily for many years, but my new digs in Fort Greene suit me just fine these days.
“Millions” for a freakin’ townhome in Brooklyn!. If I were an old-time Brooklynite come back to life after being dead for only 40 years I’d probably just croak again from the shock…
…of laughing so hard
For the interest on 3 million, I could hire maid, a cook, and a gardener….
The house looks antiseptic. My house cost 1/10th of this property and I wouldn’t trade it for this house.
The house is 25 x 52 with a 2 floor extension. They are not calculating the basement. It sold for $4mil according to property records. Many houses in the heights have gone in the 6-10 range now. Fairly average houses go in the $4mil range. Even according to the REBY 2006 report you posted on Brownstoner last week the average price for a townhouse in the heights is over $3. I don’t think any of you actually read the full set up. It’s one of those crazy post mod- computer houses where you can do things like call it and order the kitchen to cook dinner for you while you while you are on the way home. They wrote about it those tech features for the ultra luxury properties on curbed. I’m not that lazy yet.. I turn my heat off and on manually. But suppose the person who buys this will deem that cave man like.
insane price – even for a pretty house on willow. clearly a flip job. And a portion of the 7250 square feet is actually in the celler. last time I checked celler space was not selling for over $1000 a square foot.
Kara should have put “My flipper client has flipped out wanting to sell this for $9M but I took the listing anyway, hopefully he will reduce the price before too long.”
Yeah, please tell us the story!!!
Beef Stu: Kara would clearly eat you alive.
So, what is the story re purchasing the house for $2.1 M?
Kara’s pretty hot, is she single?