House of the Day: 56 Middagh Street
This clapboard house at 56 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights hit the market shortly before Christmas with an asking price of $3,600,000. It’s a charmer to be sure (love those wide floorboards!) but for that price the kitchen is a bit of a letdown. But the again consider that there’s an income-generating apartment on the…
This clapboard house at 56 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights hit the market shortly before Christmas with an asking price of $3,600,000. It’s a charmer to be sure (love those wide floorboards!) but for that price the kitchen is a bit of a letdown. But the again consider that there’s an income-generating apartment on the ground floor and that the 3,200-square-foot house (recently listed in the Marketplace) comes with a 400-square-foot side lot with room to park three cars. That’s gold in The Heights!
56 Middagh Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
woah, so location has something to do with real estate prices! **takes copious notes**
BH, that’s my point. It’s not the house that’s worth 3.6.
So, don’t tell me that there should be a premium for old architecture in NYC blah blah blah (looking at you DIBS) and this is american history bullshit (Minard). It’s the location that makes this house worth that.
Put this house anywhere else, and a bulldozer will kiss it quickly.
Sentences that start out
“If this same house was in…”
kind of miss the whole point of location, location, location.
If this house were in my hometown it’d be $75K. If it was in the West Village it’d be $8M. Who cares?
I love old architecture. Don’t get me wrong. But I think it’s absurd that this house is 3.6 million. If this same house was in Staten Island.
a) no one would give a shit about it
b) it wouldn’t be worth 3.6M
I think you can build a house out of crap, plunk it down in brooklyn heights and it’ll sell for millions.
As the owner of a frame home in a landmark district, it warms the cockles of my heart to see these beauties go for such high prices. While we didn’t buy our home as an investment, it has become our de facto emergency retirement plan. With no mortgage, we have the option to sell it and use the money for more appropriate housing, or downsize, move into our beautiful garden apartment, and rent out the triplex.
I have to thank my parents for pushing me into home ownership. The down payment was the best graduation gift ever!
“LOL, 3.6M for a piece of ‘American History’. Did I miss something? Did something historic happen in this home?”
Yes it survived. Probably one of the oldest private houses in the city.
ET< I think there should be a premium for a significantly older, historic home in a major US city. No, it won’r appeal to everyone, but this is not your run-of-the-mill brownstone. And yes, the side lot adds but is hard to value.
Rent out the garden level and two of the spaces and I’m sure you’re talking about close to $4,000 in monthly income.
LOL, 3.6M for a piece of ‘American History’. Did I miss something? Did something historic happen in this home?
Is no one else shocked with this price?
Are the windows on the top floor big enough to deem that floor ‘habitable’?
Pretty easy to repaint the stoop white, isn’t it?
Curbed ran a feature mentioning this house as an example of how blue houses are all the rage in Brooklyn Heights.
brklynmom, the ceiling heights are ideal for 19th century time travellers who are shorter than us modern giants.
The empty lot (2500 sf) around the corner on Cranberry Street sold a few months ago for $1.5 million. The parking area here is a 625 sf lot (the 400 sf quoted above is just the gated area), so in theory it contributes $375K to the asking price. The Cranberry lot is actually in a lower FAR district although here the small lot dimensions are more of a limiting factor than FAR. Interestingly I think that works out to about $350/month/space for the parking, which is pretty good in the Heights. Especially if it’s next door to your house.