House of the Day: Willow Place on the Cheap
The same person has owned this brick townhouse at 39 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights since 1974, which might explain why it’s priced so cheaply. The photos in the listings, however, show that the house is in decent shape, though certainly lacking the jaw-dropping interiors of some houses in the area. Still, $2.5 million for…
The same person has owned this brick townhouse at 39 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights since 1974, which might explain why it’s priced so cheaply. The photos in the listings, however, show that the house is in decent shape, though certainly lacking the jaw-dropping interiors of some houses in the area. Still, $2.5 million for a 25-footer in Brooklyn Heights? Not only that, but the price was dropped from $2,775,000 within ten days of it hitting the market earlier this month. What gives? What’s the catch?
39 Willow Place [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
Price Cut [Natefind]
JohnR,
Your 10:21am post will be a prime example used of “irrational exuberance” when the market “corrects.”
You mention that Manhattan townhouses are 10 million. Just three years ago I almost bought a landmark townhouse with a big yard listed by Corcoran in Soho for 1.7million.
I strongly believe townhouse prices in Manhattan and Brooklyn will decline 50% in the next couple years.
Only time will tell . . .
JohnR,
Thanks for you thoughtful, informed and sane comments. Now I know that I am not crazy (or at least not alone) in thinking that the value is near what you’re saying.
Jessica:
I am JohnR (see posting from April 19, 2007 4:39 PM.
I too looked at the house and agree that it has a lot of potential. Location is very nice. There are no subways running underneath as some people speculated above. There are 4400 square feet of space, which is nicely proportioned because of the 25′ width.
In my opinion, the house will have to be nearly gutted to bring it up to a high standard with all new plumbing, electrical, central air and finishes. Whether or not floors would have to be replaced is an unknown — who knows what lies beneath the modern oak strip floors? The windows also need replacing.
As I noted in my original posting, if I were to renovate this house to a high standard that would be expected by buyers in the Heights, I calculate that the final net cost would be somewhere between $4.2mln – $4.5mln (depending on the actual selling price, which is unknown to me).
What would one get for $4.5 mln? A magnificient, newly renovated and restored 25′ wide townhouse in Brooklyn Heights — a rarity. That is around $1000 per square foot, which is very much within a reasonable range for the neighborhood. Actually, $4.5mln is closer to prices that existed in mid-2006 for a similar sized renovated townhouse in the Heights.
I reject all the nonsense on this site about the supposed idiocy of paying $4mln for a house in the Heights. Value is determined by both those doing the valuing and the thing that is being valued. 39 Willow Place was packed with potential buyers when I looked at it. And it appears that many of them put in actual bids. Obviously, there were many people who placed a high value on this house given its potential and location.
The Allentown comments don’t make much sense to me. Obviously there are old townhouses throughout the northeast, but to suggest an hour and a half commute by car rivals one subway stop from downtown Manhattan is absurd. It’s not about feeling superior, it’s about owning a large house close to Manhattan that doesn’t cost 10 million or more like the ones actually in Manhattan.
The value of a thing is simply what people are willing to pay for it… the more people willing to pay that price, the firmer the value. Is a designer dress “worth” $5,000? Maybe not intrinsically, but if enough people are willing to pay $5,000, then that’s what it’s worth.
To the people who are talking this down:
1) If you own in the neighborhood, you should only be happy about people willing to pay higher prices, because it raises the value of your property;
2) If you bid on this property and did not win, you are just bitter;
3) If you own in another neighborhood, you are also bitter that Brooklyn Heights prices are moving the way they are;
4) If you are in no way involved, then why are you so obsessed as to spend your time blogging this site?
For disclosure – I saw the house (which is more than most of you can say). I brought an architect friend who thought very highly of it. I bid on it. Who are the rest of you?
Who the hell was an hour long commute to Manhattan?
It takes half an hour to get to Midtown–less if you work downtown. That’s why Park Slope is so pricey.
If it takes you an hour to get to work from Park Slope, you must work for Columbia U.
7:39
Pennsylvania isn’t a state. Fact. Check it. It’s a commonwealth. Respect, though, everything else you said was on the money. Allentowner is another blog. This is Brownstoner (Yay!). 🙂
There was a great article in last week’s New Yorker about extreme commuting. After reading it, it’s hard to figure who’s more insane, somebody who’d do a 4-hour round-trip commute (yep, it’ll take that long, I once lived in next-door Bethlehem, though not while working here!) or your typical 500K-a-year whatever “stretching” to get into this fine fixer-upper. Plenty of Picasso sketches or baseball cards one could invest in with better odds of appreciation.
it’s not nuts if your goal is to show off and you’re willing to spend anything to do. of course, most families would be perfectly happy living somewhere cheaper. the point is there are rich people who don’t care if the house makes sense as an investment or not. they want to show off to their friends and are willing to spend anything to do so.
just my opinion