House of the Day: Crown Heights Original
This beautiful 4-story place in Crown Heights just came on the market yesterday and it has us salivating over some of its delicious details. The original wood detailing and paneling is very impressive; the unusual light blue detail in the bathroom tile is also pretty cool. As for the asking price, hard to say. Judging…
This beautiful 4-story place in Crown Heights just came on the market yesterday and it has us salivating over some of its delicious details. The original wood detailing and paneling is very impressive; the unusual light blue detail in the bathroom tile is also pretty cool. As for the asking price, hard to say. Judging from the view of the backyard, the immediate neighborhood has not exactly been taken over by gentrification just yet! But that’s why it’s $950,000 and not $2 million on the other side of the park. Our only serious concern is the fact that it’s an SRO. On the positive side, it’s vacant, so there are no ugly evictions to go through; on the negative side, there is a several-month process to go through with HPD to change the C of O. If the current owner has kept a decent paper trail on the former SRO tenants, that will make things much easier. Also, being willing to tackle unpleasant tasks like this is often a way to create value. It certainly enabled us to pick up our place at a discount.
Sterling Place [Ettelson RE]
If you buy an empty house and it is an SRO and you live in it as a single family you don’t have to convert it. If you bought a 3 family and used it as a two you dont convert it. Its not like if you dont convert your SRO that single men with suitcases are going to demand lodging.
I know for certain a few houses have sold in CH for around a million. But we are talking amazing houses in pristine condition or 8000 sf mansions that look like they are right out of a movie. Not an SRO that has a crap kitchen and bath. It looks like the house also needs some other cosmetic work. And to convert an SRO to a single or 2 familly home is a lot of long and frustrating bureaucratic work. It is a long and difficult process.
There’s also an interesting article from the NYT on Crown Heights, from September 2004. Racial tensions have abated somewhat, and Franklin Avenue is now safe for walking!
A year ago, median household income was $26,000 and median house price was $405,000. There’s been appreciation in the last year, but $1m still seems awfully high.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/realestate/19LIVI.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=9734e56ff242efaa&ex=1253419200&partner=rssnyt
I searched the NYT website recent sales for Crown Heights, which produced results from Feb through May. Nothing in CH went for more than $600k, so either no brownstones were sold or that house is way overpriced.
As to CH being “rough,” I don’t mean to imply that there aren’t great things about the neighborhood nor that good people don’t live there. But a friend teaches at an elementary school right near the museum, and though the situation isn’t as bad as it was during the early 90s, when there were lots of crack-baby kids, it doesn’t seem to have improved enough to justify a $1m house. In addition, I haven’t walked around the neighborhood lately, but I wonder if the tension of the early 90s riots has really been resolved.
What is to convert to a single family? Taking locks off doors? The detalis are in good condition. Doesnt look like a big reno at all. This house is a good price and a good value. To make it a two or three family maybe (adding kitchens and bathrooms). This house is next to Lefferts Manor I think (Sterling and New York Ave) and it is not that rough.
I agree with the last commenter, the price seems too high. With the amount of work needed to convert to a single or double family home, it’s easily around the same price at the property from yesterday in Clinton Hill (at $1.2). But a house a block from Pratt is in a _much_ better location that a house a block from the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. I love the museum and the buildings, always have, but the neighborhood is a little rough.
I don’t know about a great value @950K for an SRO in Crown Heights though… It seems like it’s pushing the enveloppe a little…
Great house great value.. Looks amazing
Typical Crown Heights details. The tiles in the bathroom are original. I have seen them only in the more grand brownstones in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy.