House of the Day: 397 3rd Street
Oh, boy, this new listing at 397 3rd Street in Park Slope is so nice it almost makes us want to paint our wood floors white! As the listing astutely points out, the four-story brick-and-brownstone house is not over-designed; it is, however, charmingly preserved with just the right touch of modern. It’s also well-styled for…
Oh, boy, this new listing at 397 3rd Street in Park Slope is so nice it almost makes us want to paint our wood floors white! As the listing astutely points out, the four-story brick-and-brownstone house is not over-designed; it is, however, charmingly preserved with just the right touch of modern. It’s also well-styled for sale, with just enough well-chosen pieces to look good but empty enough to be a blank canvas for the fantasies of the aspiring homeowner. All this good stuff don’t come cheap though: the asking price is $3,695,000.
397 3rd Street [Brown Harris Stevens]
People who buy places at these prices ordinarily put a lot more down than 20%..oftentimes half or more.
Lots of 2-3 bedroom condos in Manhattan with gains of $2-3MM out there, LOTS.
if a 1 family 3 flr version similar to this house aint available, I can understand the 4 story version with the rental. but assuming a 3 flr version is available, just cant see why one who is spending this much would want to play landlord to anyone
By landlord on December 13, 2010 3:01 PM
How often does one that lives on 8th use the park as opposed to those living near 5th using all that 5th avenue has to offer?!
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ummm, about 100 times more?
My gues is that Noki is pointing out that there are two different types of wealthy people looking at townhouses like this (above 2 or 2.5M): on the one hand, you have people with very high incomes who can afford a five figure monthly nut and thus are willing to take out a massive mortgage. These are your MDs and above at IB’s and PE shops, maybe some partners at law firms or other professional servieces firms, and some other types with high incomes (like franchisees, etc.).
On the other hand, there are also the wealthy people who may not have extraordinarily high incomes. Here are the people still earning $250-400 K a year who also have significant assets (e.g., their share of probating the family’s classic 7 on the UES, or the screenwriting credits that actually did pay off), so they can put a lot down and keep the mortgage payment under $5000 or 6000. But their income might be fluctuating significantly, or maybe one of them is tired of working and wants be a SAHM/D. I’d imagine that such an owner might appreciate offsetting a significant amount of their monthly expenses by renting out a garden apartment for $2500 a month.
Obviously, both are wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. But they are in different categories.
And honestly, if you have three floors of a 22′ wide house, are you really going to use the darkest floor that much? I’d willingly give that up (as long as I could still access the back garden and the cellar independently).
Dave, that’s a $22K/mo. mortgage (after putting down $800K). On after tax monthly income of ~$27K that’s not easily affording the place. $1,500-$2,000 doesn’t really move the needle here.
And in my book steady household income of $500K (that’s steady, not Wall Street bonus fueled) and $800K of equity is a pretty wealthy household.
Take a look at what you can get in the ‘burbs for this price. I would say one of those places is what I would describe as a place a ‘super wealthy’ person would live.
And yes, the floors can be ripped out and replaced with nice oak including a Greek key border for <$10,000.
If you can afford a $3.7mm place you can afford 10K to refinish the floors. In fact, I bet the broker would throw it in to get their $200K commission on the sale.
I don’t believe that someone who can afford a $3MM is “super rich” by any stretch of the imagination. I also believe they may like the idea of an extra $1,500-2,000 coming in to cover a large portion of the motrtgage.
Two halfway decent $200,000 -250,000 incomes could easily afford this place and tht level of income is NOT super rich.
I’ve just about finished stripping white paint off a wide-planked wood floor (luckily someone painted right over marine spar varnish and most of it came off with just a little warm water, like peeling sunburn) Good riddance! Painted white floors are the pits. They get really dirty in a heartbeat and show it.