House of the Day: 15 Lefferts Place
Hey, this whole FSBO thing seems to be catching on! We were sent the link to the site for 15 Lefferts Place, a lovely four-story brownstone just East of Grand Avenue. The house, which is configured as a owner’s triplex over a rental simplex, appears to have a decent amount of detail. There are some…
Hey, this whole FSBO thing seems to be catching on! We were sent the link to the site for 15 Lefferts Place, a lovely four-story brownstone just East of Grand Avenue. The house, which is configured as a owner’s triplex over a rental simplex, appears to have a decent amount of detail. There are some more modern elements, including the kitchen, which appears to be very nice, and some new doors that are trying to look old but not cutting it (a little pet peeve of ours). The rental apartment has some charming original floorboards and the skylight at the top of the stairwell is one of those beautiful oval babies. The front parlor, with pier mirror and floor-to-ceiling wood windows looks like a winner. The price–$1.495 million–is exactly what we would have expected and we bet they’ll come pretty darn close to getting it.
Brownstone FSBO [15 Lefferts Place] GMAP P*Shark
Some folks make a lot and others make a little. The more you make, the more you can afford.
I must be a frigg’n genious!
It’s a good point, Anon 4:13, and even those who put down a large down payment will find themselves squeezed as interest rates continue to rise. As far as what things are “worth”, 63 Lefferts sold for almost $1.5 so all of a sudden, that’s what things are worth on the block. I’ve seen both houses and 15 Lefferts is in better shape. 63 had the exterior scraped off (she was selling “as is”) and you could see that it needed re-pointing as well. 63 had the original windows and they were beautiful but apparently were leaky. The owner of 15 has put in all new windows as well as a new boiler. So by those standards, his house should fetch even more than the asking.
The only way I can see affording these things is if you got into the real estate market years ago and can sell something else. I have two groups of friends: those who rented back then are still renting or have moved to the suburbs. Those who bought 15 years ago have been able to make a fair chunk of change from selling and can at least contemplate buying at these prices. But whether they should is a whole other story…
Anon 4:35,
I don’t have any kids yet — it’s just me and the wife. Of course we could get by with one bathroom, but who wants to just get by?
There’s nothing worse than when you “gotta go” but can’t because someone else is using the bathroom. Or if you’re in a rush to get ready and someone else is using the only shower.
Personally, I won’t buy a house without three full bathrooms, or the possibility of three full bathrooms — guests and kids yet to exist need bathrooms too.
so where does someone making 400k live these days?
Brenda, like it or not there are a lot of people with a lot of money in NYC; one difference today is that a lot more of them want to live in Brooklyn. Lawyers, finance / wall street people make so much more than other white-collar professionals that what they can afford is staggering to you or me.
If you want to carry, say, a $6000-a-month mortgage payment and pay no more than 30% of your gross salary for housing, you need a $240K income. Get two lawyers in the family and you can have a $300K income without breaking a sweat.
And how many lawyers, etc., do you think there are in NYC?
Personally, I own a house only because I bought a co-op in the mid-90s, then sold it. I earn about 4x what I did then (which was not a lot), but I would not be able to buy my house based on my income had I not had an apartment to sell — not even close.
Look. The “rich people” comment was meant to be provocative, pure and simple. But things are out of whack. The center cannot hold…. The poster who makes a very healthy $400,000 — I’m assuming I’d love to share a drink with this accomplished person. But we shouldn’t delude ourselves: If you make that much money, you’re company to “those Americans in the top 1 percent, the nearly 1.3 million taxpayers who made at least $327,000.” These are, in fact, rich people. I’ll be happy to sell my Park Slope 3-bedroom for four times what I paid for it five years ago. But then I’ll have to leave, because frame houses with vinyl siding on 17th Street bet. 4th and 5th are out of my league.
Anon 3:59,
My point is that everything is over priced in ALL OF NYC — MANHATTAN AND BROOKLYN.
Of course, if I were to sell my houses, I’d ask top dollar. If somebody is willing to pay me twenty time what I paid eight years (which is a longshot but possible given the inflated market) that’s their dumb decision, not mine.
ALL OF NEW YORK CITY IS OVERPRICED.
IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE TO PAY EXTREME HYPOTHETICAL RENT MULTIPLES FOR PROPERTIES — REAL ESTATE IS NOT THE STOCK MARKET. THERE’S NO LOGICAL REASON A HOUSE SHOULD GO UP IN PRICE 70% IN A YEAR — NONE AT ALL.
Jake the Snake says: “the main drawback is that there is only one bathroom in the owner’s part of the house. I’d want at least two bathrooms, preferably three” .
Just how many kids do you have that you could not possibly subsist w/o 2 to 3 bathrooms?
Brenda, part of your answer also lies in how much debt a given person is comfortable with. We have what I consider a very healthy income that is in the $400K range, and I can tell you that even if we had a sizeable down payment, we would not be comfortable taking on the kind of mortgage needed for a $1.4 million home, even with a few thousand a month in rental income, especially one that likely still needs a signifcant amount of work. But my sense is that a lot of people are comfortable with paying a very large percentage of their income–otherwise I can’t imagine who would spend so much. So even among those who can “afford” such a home in theory, there is probably a big range of incomes who do it based on individual comfort with debt, percentage of income on housing, etc.