HOTD: Lefferts Limestone Lovely but Pricey
If the owner of this pristine limetone house on Midwood Street in Prospect Lefferts achieves the asking price of $1,495,000, it will have to be some kind of record for the nabe. The single-family residence looks like a real beauty, with plenty of period details and modern conveniences (wiring, media room, etc.). We wish BHS…
If the owner of this pristine limetone house on Midwood Street in Prospect Lefferts achieves the asking price of $1,495,000, it will have to be some kind of record for the nabe. The single-family residence looks like a real beauty, with plenty of period details and modern conveniences (wiring, media room, etc.). We wish BHS had a few more photos on the site–especially of the kitchen–but overall it looks rock-solid. We just can’t get over the price though. Have we been asleep at the wheel or is this asking price a good $100,000 to $200,000 higher than anything else in the neighborhood in recent memory?
Midwood Street Townhouse [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP
I am thinking of moving in PLG with my family and safety is my main concern about this area.
I liked it when I came there several times, during the day, but really what is it going to be on a daily basis, for me or for my teenage boy who goes to school in the city, when we comute back from manhattan in the evening ?
I really don’t care about having a coffee shop or great restaurants nearby, but I care about beeing safe. Any opinions ?
thanks to all for a good, and civil, discussion. if anyone would like to know more about this neighborhood, please drop by the Young, Fresh and Green health food store and juice bar at 1098 Nostrand Avenue this Thursday (Oct. 6) between 6:15 and 8:30. (it’s between Lincoln and Maple.) the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association is hosting a storytelling circle for youth and seniors. it’s part of the group’s intergenerational sharing program. come share stories about the neighborhood. for more information, please call 718-774-1346. (Note: This post was not sponsored or solicited by PLEGNA.)
I lived in FG twenty years ago, and PLM is vastly nicer, safer, and more neighborhoody than FG was then.
I sense that some of the folk who are scratching their heads about why people want to live in PLG/PLM have never actually walked the streets of this neighborhood or spent any appreciable amount of time here. ( Time spent does not mean swooping in, checking out a single house for sale and leaving). In fact, I bet that, if these same folk had seen Fort Greene or Clinton Hill 20 years ago, they would have run screaming in the opposite direction for many of the same reasons they now express about PLG.
To those who have offered opinions about PLG without investigation, I say, get off your PC or Mac and come on over here for a visit. Walk through Prospect Park or the Botanic Gardens to get here. Bring your kids along and stop at the zoo before you make your way back to your nicely-gentrified neighborhoods. Make sure you see the vastly diverse and glorious architecture of the nabe — from the stately brownstones and limestones to the rambling Victorian mansions. And don’t just gawk. Be sure to stop a person or two on our streets and engage them in a brief survey. Tell them you are checking out the nabe and ask them what they think about living here.
IMHO, the “East Side Lands” (which is what this area used to be called way back in the early 1900’s)is a wonderful place not just to visit, but also to live. As a proud PLG homeowner who doesn’t even own a spot in the Manor, this goes for the entire neighborhood — including the loud, colorful, zesty and occasionally hair-raising Flatbush Avenue.
prices across the u.s. (and for world) may look crazy. prices here haven’t increased any faster than prices anywhere else. given the state of the global real estate market, $1.5 m isn’t unusual anymore. i’m not saying that’s a good thing, it’s just a fact. but i’m certain the house at $1.5 m will be a good investment for the right buyer who doesn’t want to flip it. obviously, the buyer needs to be someone who can make it work financially, with the right amount of down payment and mortgage. needless to say, the conventional approach of 20% down isn’t always the way it’s done. people selling first apartments often cash out with huge piles of money.
but they real issue is the merits of the neighborhood. i just met a young family with two kids that bought a house here. they grew up in new york, and lived in fort greene for years. they looked for a home in a number of neighborhoods but “fell in love” with lefferts, which reminds them of the “fort greene of 10 years ago.” they describe their house as “a blessing.” as for notorious flatbush ave., these native new yorkers shrug their shoulders and say “it means nothing to us.” like a lot of people, they appreciate the intrinsic value of this neighborhood. that’s why it was designated a historic district decades ago. the intrinsic value of lefferts is in the homes, the architecture, the scale of a neighborhood that was built 100 years ago when cities were at an optimum density that promoted a sense of community. historic details in a home are great. but lefferts is an historic artifact itself, as near its original state as any neighborhood in brownstone brookln. in that sense, the lack of commercial development is a good thing. for many of us, it’s the last opportunity to live that life, because it costs many times more somewhere else. no one designates an area a historic district because of its bars, restaurants and shops.
300k down + 7k a month to live in PLG. How can anyone not think that’s crazy!
Because they like living in an historic district with true single family houses and tree lined streets, that’s near the park, the zoo, the carousel, the botanic garden, the library, the ice-skating rink, the bike and running paths, the farmer’s market and the maple street school, a terrific preschool that draws kids from all over the area. because the neighborhood is filled with kids who hang around on each other’s blocks and in each other’s homes. because, despite a noisy strip on flatbush, most of the neighborhood is actually very quiet. because they like knowing older people who remember Ebbets Field and the Dodgers.
we figure out the school situation the way most new yorkers do–very few people that I know send their kids to neighborhood public schools k-12 regardless of where they live. sure, there’s some crime here, just like there is in prospect heights, bed sty, crown heights, boerum hill and park slope. people but i’ve never been bothered by anyone. and we come and go at all hours of the day (and night.) i would love to have a few bars and restaurants, but it’s hardly the top item on my agenda. the park and my neighbors are far more important.
I don’t understand why people are paying so much to live in this neighborhood. 1.5 million to live in an area that’s not particularly safe, has no restaurants or bars, very little shopping, bad schools, and a long commute (for those who take the 2/3). This house looks amazing, but I’d give up the extra space to live in Park Slope or even Bay Ridge.
the point, again, about the big apartment buldings is that they aren’t all section 8. some of them (50 lefferts, 125 ocean) are already great co-ops. the area is moving, albeit slowly, toward a tipping point. those of us who actually live here can sense it. as for the house in question, the market already has spoken. a similar house went for a similar price. this one will sell for asking, and over time it will appreciate. just like the rest of brownstone brooklyn.
as for the serious problems, they are way over stated. that’s why people continue to move here at a fast rate. and they stay.