House of the Day: 169 Westminster Road
At this point in spiking popularity of Victorian Flatbush, this house at 169 Westminster Road (in the sub-nabe known as Prospect Park South) is probably on the cheaper end of the spectrum at $1.25 million. The six-bedroom house is described as needing TLC but the place is hardly a dump and there are plenty of…
At this point in spiking popularity of Victorian Flatbush, this house at 169 Westminster Road (in the sub-nabe known as Prospect Park South) is probably on the cheaper end of the spectrum at $1.25 million. The six-bedroom house is described as needing TLC but the place is hardly a dump and there are plenty of old details to work with. There’s also a two-room office with private entrance for income-generating purposes. Looks reasonable to us but our street-by-street knowledge of this area is limited. What do locals think?
169 Westminster Road [Mary Kay Gallagher] GMAP P*Shark
Anonymous at 11:38 AM: the exterior was actually repainted last year, but the front columns need rescraping due to a nest of carpenter bees that have since been exterminated.
I grew up in the 1.95mil house on Buckingham. My parents are the ones selling it. It’s a great house – seriously the best house for hide-and-seek when you’re a 5year old, but I admit to the fact that it needs the kitchens and baths updated. We’ve tried to update/paint/restore as much as our budget would allow over the years. As far as the foot traffic goes, it really isn’t terrible, neither are the sounds from Church. I know that if it were on Albermarle or further we would have had an easier time selling, but i also blame our realtor for not being as agressive with our house as she’s been with the smaller homes in the neighborhood. I also believe that it was priced too high to begin with, which probably scared off many potential buyers, and once it was reduced it scared them off some more.
This house is not spectacular, either in terms of condition or architecturally, compared with it’s PPS neighbors. It’s a pretty run of the mill Victorian, the likes of which you will find in other areas of Victorian Flatbush.
That said houses in non landmarked nabes are selling for $1.1 plus… some in need of some serious work. So, given the location, which is prime (near the Park, Cortelyou Road, Windsor Terrace (movie theater, butcher, etc..), this seems like the going rate.
I think people have a hard time accepting that these houses are worth quite so much now – but remember, they were in fact built for the wealthy (PPS and DP proper) and upper middle classes…
12:26, my math and language was way off there. I meant to say that the house might command 1.3M after spending 300K–which means it should be priced at 1M, not at the current 1.25. And if you’re going to argue that it might actually sell for 1.55 after renovation, then I totally disagree.
Actually, I think if this were done, it would command $1.325, at least. I have to disagree with 9:48. PPS is one of the best, if not the best, neighborhood in Victorian Flatbush, as it is close to the park, historically zoned and full of some of the most amazing houses in the area. The $1.95M and $2.5M houses take you into a range people have not gone into in Vic Flatbush yet (other than the perfectly restored on featured here before for over $1.9 in Ditmas, which went right away) and therefore, are not moving. $1.325M for this, restored to your personal taste, in a prime Vic Flatbush neighborhood closer to the park and faster into Manhattan than the $1.9 house in Ditmas is not a bad deal.
Oh the 2.5 million house…. It doesn’t have it’s original front porch. That should be restored if the owner is seriously going to ask 2.5 million. I bet it wouldn’t be hard to reconstruct (although I don’t know how costly…). The previous owner, a doctor removed the porch, and also covered the first floor with vinyl tile. The house was on the Vic. Flatbush house tour a few years ago. Wall to wall covering most of the first floor… don’t know how hard it would be to repair damage to the original floor (probably fantastic parquet work), but my bet is you’re looking at new floors. Second floor is in beautiful condition. Never been on the third floor.
Have to say the three story cantilevered staircase is magnificent, as is the stained glass oculus and original light fixture (hangs down three stories…)
I think you may be confusing the $1.95 ask on Buckingham with another house on in PPS on Albermarle, which was asking $4 million a few years back. That house, to be fair, just got a new roof, but the exterior still needs TONS of work.
The exterior of the house in Buckingham seems to be in decent condition…
Buckingham may be sitting as it is very close to Church Avenue, with it’s heavy foot traffic and noise – not to mention Bobby’s Dept. Store. I bet closer to Beverly it would have sold ages ago… Buckingham, however, is architecturally, from my perspective anyway, the finest street in PPS, perhaps in all of Flatbush.
Listing #0447 – $1,950,000 is swoonworthy, but the exterior needs a whole lot of work. I was surprised to see in photo that the interior looked that good. (I have only seen the exterior). If I had a couple of mil, and budget to scrape, restore and repaint the exterior I would be packing my bags to move there.
Listing #0448 – $2.5MM is in fantastic condition, but no where near as stately looking from the outside, so think that it is overpriced.
I’d say that the $2.5MM house is overpriced for the current market, although it is in better condition. The $1.95MM is much larger and special and although it would need $100 – $200K to bring it up to snuff, is a really lovely property that is well worth the investment.