House of the Day: 735 Decatur Street
Don’t let the vinyl siding fool you: This three-story, two-family house at 735 Decatur Street in Bedford Stuyvesant has lots of original detail that’s in surprisingly good shape. We can probably debate all day long about whether or not the asking price of $630,000 (according to the NYT listing) should be $20,000 or $30,000 less….
Don’t let the vinyl siding fool you: This three-story, two-family house at 735 Decatur Street in Bedford Stuyvesant has lots of original detail that’s in surprisingly good shape. We can probably debate all day long about whether or not the asking price of $630,000 (according to the NYT listing) should be $20,000 or $30,000 less. The bottom line is that this is by far the most charming house for the money on the market right now. Granted, it’s pretty far east—a block further and you’d be in Bushwick—but, whatever, we like it.
735 Decatur Street [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
735 Decatur Street [NY Times]
My husband and I purchased a house like this about 2 years ago. We’re more Ocean Hill/Bed-Stuy. Many of the details were stripped before we purchased our brick based/siding home, BUT we were able to get our 1st home for about $380K. It’s about 2 blocks from the C at Fulton and Rockaway–yeah, no long hikes to the subway. Everyone can’t have a brownstone. Oops did I say that on this site?! We’ve been renovating since day one…the layouts are just like brownstones…high ceilings, and fireplaces, and most of them have huge backyards. We turned our weed infested one into a beautiful garden where we’ve entertained family and friends. We learned that our place was built around 1900 long before cheap materials were used. It’s not our dream home…but it is a start…By the way, it’s possible for homeowners to add shutters and other details to the front of these brick based/siding homes.
“Foreclosure epidemic or not, the days of the under $500K brownstones are over”
They’re coming back. Just wait a year or two.
this house would not be anywhere near $899 in even the best part of bed/stuy… unless they didn’t want to sell it.
Feel better now “Robin Banks”? I’m so glad that out of all of the discussion of this house, which is the point of us being here, you’ve figured out my name really isn’t Montrose Morris. If I piss you off that much, I would hope it would be for something a little more substantive. Oh, well.
Montrose W. Morris, the architect of the Renaissance, was active in Brooklyn’s late 1800’s real estate boom. When Morris opened his office in 1883, his advertising technique was to design and build his own residence in Brooklyn and open it to the public. One of the visitors was developer Louis F. Seitz who commissioned an apartment house on property Seitz owned on Nostrand Avenue. Known as the Alhambra, the new building so pleased Seitz that he commissioned Morris to design two additional apartment houses, the Renaissance and the Imperial. These three apartment buildings were among the most prestigious and impressive multiple-family residences in Brooklyn.
An architect, died April 14, 1916, at his home in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, aged fifty-five. He was born at Hempstead, Long Island, New York. He designed the Brevoort Savings Bank in Brooklyn and many large apartment houses and residences in that borough.
“Granted, it’s pretty far east—a block further and you’d be in Bushwick”
..and Bushwick is where the homeless people buy?
You’re posting under a name my ass. I’d be willing to wager a good sum of money that your real name is not “Montrose Morris”. And if you’re just posting under some name that you selected at random….oh wow, how brave you are. Lol.
So, “Montrose”, if you want me to have a name so bad, let’s go with Robin Banks. Feel better now? Are you impressed by my “bravery” in posting under my “name” the way you do?
Hey, I may be monotonous, but at least I post under a name, and can stand by what I say in cyberspace. Being one of 5 million “guest” posts really makes your criticism of what I say really hit home. Ouch.
This house is a perfect example of a harsh reality. Even in the back woods of Bed Stuy/Ocean Hill/Bushwick, houses aren’t cheap. Foreclosure epidemic or not, the days of the under $500K brownstones are over, and probably won’t be back. People can call this house all kinds of pieces of shit, but that don’t make it so, and also does not lessen its attractiveness to someone as described by 6:34. Yeah, it’d be nice if it were elsewhere for a bunch of reasons, but if it were even 20 blocks farther into Bed Stuy, it would be around 899K, and people would be clamouring about what a deal it was. If it were near putnamdenizen, it would be around 999K, and if it were in the South Slope, it would be over a million.
I predict that even out there in Ocean Hill, and other far flung “questionable” neighborhoods, there are going to be pockets of gentrification, renovation and newcomers. It will happen in groups of houses, or entire blocks. There is a lot of nice housing in these areas, and this house is certainly not bad. People who want brownstones are going to go where they are, and there will always be those who aren’t afraid, or put off by a neighborhood or its people, and will make nice lives for themselves.
i think that even if you swing the cash to do the renovations above and take care of the problems that will certainly arise, you better get clever quick about what you’ll do with your kids for friends and for school.
buy a condo in a better hood and just live your lives.
even if this does appreciate, which i actually think it will, you have to live in the mean time.
for the first time ever in NY, i found a great neighborhood and have made lots of friends has have my daughter. this is really really important and more important than suffering thru a marginal at best neighborhood.