House of the Day: Stuy Heights Grandaddy
This glorious architectural specimen in Stuyvesant Heights has it all going on–5,000 square feet of wood-paneling, parquet floors and stained glass. The first viewing is at today’s open house (quick, you’ve got about half an hour to get over there!) though you’ll get another chance on Sunday. It’s currently configured as a two-family with the…
This glorious architectural specimen in Stuyvesant Heights has it all going on–5,000 square feet of wood-paneling, parquet floors and stained glass. The first viewing is at today’s open house (quick, you’ve got about half an hour to get over there!) though you’ll get another chance on Sunday. It’s currently configured as a two-family with the rental apartment on the top floor. The pictures tell the story–our only question is what kind of comps are there for this place? $1.2 million does not sound outlandish to us for the quality and location. What do people think?
416 Stuyvesant Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
This board is ridiculous. How can brownstoner say he loves the architecture and then put up a posting that basically allows every idiot with 2 seconds on their hands to trash the same house that they probably haven’t even see. Yes I’m a real estate agent. No I don’t work for Corcoran or know these agents personally. But give me a break. This is not doing anybody a service in my book. Selling a home isn’t about whether everybody on some silly website happens to like it. That’s just people with nothing better to do, or sour grapes, or jealosy or something else. Reminds me of amihot.com
I don’t want to sound like some sort of self-appointed cultural representative here, but for many (though certainly not all) African Americans living in Bed Stuy or Harlem or Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill is our first choice. To you it may be Utica Ave A Train and fried chicken places, to me it allows my (future) kids to be raised in NYC with a sense of self and a sense of pride around other decent and successful black folk.
After being at the law firm, bank, trading floor, wherever all day honestly it just feels good to come home to a place where your neighbors enjoy the same food, movies and music you do. A place where you can relax and be yourself.
Park Slope and BK Heights are beautiful, no one would deny that, but to be frank they are just too white for my taste. And hey white folks are obviously welcomed with open arms in the Stuy or Clint Hill (like I would be in Park Slope right???) but damn it fells good to have a place where most of the neighbors look like me.
These considerations are often at the heart of one’s choice about where to live and you cannot easily plug them into some financial model. Especially when one’s view is focused on the long term and not some 6 month flip , $1.2 around my people (with all those beautiful details) sounds pretty damn good to me. Just one man’s opinion.
I think the thing people forget is the value of appreciation even in a stagnant market. Let’s say the market drops 20% over the next year, so that this property would be valued at $940,000 after a painful correction. The owner would have lost $240,000 in value.
Lets say that for the next ten years, housing prices appreciate at the national average, which is 5% a year. In ten years, that property would be worth $1,530,000. The value would then be about 30% higher than when he bought it.
His increase in value would be a 135% return on investment over ten years, or an annualized return of about 13%. What ROI are you getting exactly on the money you pay on rent? 4.75% in a money market account? 10% a year that the stock market has averaged over a 100 years (with some significant swings up and down).
That 5% a year average appreciation sure is nice when it’s on a $1.2m asset, instead of 4.75% on much smaller cash assets of $240k.
I have a question which I hope relates sufficiently to this thread: which would be considered more valuable in the Stuy Heights area – a 2 family that’ s a double duplex, or a 2 family with owner’s triplex and studio rental? Anyone care to give an informed opinion?
Even if you assume owning is “better” than renting – at what price are you willing to forgo the benefits –
The real issue that is being bantered about is that price appreciation can not go on forever at anywhere near its recent pace (FACT)
So if your buying this place (or any other) to live in till you die – god bless; but if your buying thinking appreciation than you are taking a huge chance when clearly prices currently bare no relationship to incomes or rental prices.
Ebomb, are you advocating renting over home ownership? I certainly hope not…..
Shahn, of course I agree that people are willing to pay a premium over what it would go for as a rental. The question is how much of a premium is worth it?
At 20% down, for a 30 year, 6.2% mortgage, the monthly payment would be $5,879 for that 1.2 million smackers house. With insurance, taxes, heat, and maintence, you’re talking outflow of at minimum $6,500/mo. Say you could get $2000/mo for the rental, that leaves $4,500/mo you gotta spend every month for the next thirty years just to occupy the place.
Hell, you could rent a dope pad in Soho or Tribeca and use the $240k downpayment to buy a vacation pad in Puerto Vallarta or just stick it in a money market and get 4.75%.
What economic justification is there that the real estate market is going to keep rising given the incredible gains of the last five years?
I think the 1:07 “pod people” comment was on the mark. The realtors say the words and they come out of your mouths. Brooklyn is so five minutes ago.
391 Stuvyesant did not sit on the market for months. It went into contract the first week at full asking. The property stayed in contract for almost 6 months and closed in late January as the probate court worked out various issues related to the liquidation of the estate. That purchase was a steal whereas this property appears to be fairly priced.