House of the Day: 540 16th Street
This charming Arts and Crafts house at 540 16th Street in Windsor Terrace started out as a FSBO asking $1,550,000 before it moved to a small, local broker and got a new price tag of $1,499,999. Now Brooklyn Properties has the listing and is offering the one-family house for $1,350,000. It’s a charmer, to be…
This charming Arts and Crafts house at 540 16th Street in Windsor Terrace started out as a FSBO asking $1,550,000 before it moved to a small, local broker and got a new price tag of $1,499,999. Now Brooklyn Properties has the listing and is offering the one-family house for $1,350,000. It’s a charmer, to be sure (kitchen and bathrooms aside). Think the new asking price is reasonable?
540 16th Street [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
Believe me, there are plenty of families in WT making 300k or more. My former boss and his wife, for one of them…
And yes, i think any potential buyer for this house (or any other property in brooklyn save a spec condo) is going to put down 30-50% cash.
But, I agree that a declining market is going to keep those people on the sidelines. Why would you make what looks like a bad bet?
As for this little charmer, it just seems like they’re still 10% too high, mostly because unless your style is Country Living magazine, you’re going to want to drop some dough on a cosmetic renovation. And I like WT, certainly better than most of the south slope.
I think we will see 2007 prices in about 5 years. That is more the normal NYC cycle.
I very much doubt that many of the potential buyers for Windsor Terrace housing stock are making $300k or above per family. Some are, of course, but probably not many. Let’s face it, Windsor Terrace is a neighborhood for people who can’t afford Park Slope but still want to be in the area. Sort of like Prospect Heights. At any given price point, if the same thing were available in the Slope proper, pretty much anyone would choose to live in the Slope. The Slope has become hugely popular over the past few years, and a lot of overflow of people who can’t afford Slope prices is moving into WT and PH. Thus the incredible run-up in prices in those neighborhoods while the marginal buyers stretch themselves more and more just to live in an “almost the Slope” neighborhood.
Even in the Slope, I think there are lots of buyers in the $1 million to $1.3 million range who are making less than $300k a year and have just stretched themselves absolutely to the maximum to afford what they bought. It used to be possible to get financing for this sort of thing, but no longer, which explains a lot of the current softness in the market. All of a sudden only people who can actually afford those prices are credible buyers, and there just aren’t very many of them.
I sort of feel sorry for the poeople who are now trapped in PS apartments they bought in the past couple of years with eroding equity, but I can’t say they shouldn’t have known better.
I have previously made my views clear on the direction of prices in the Slope. Prices will fall, and a fair amount. It will take two or three years to hit a bottom, and we won’t see 2007 prices again until about 10 years from now.
Bette – just a reminder that comps shift in a down market, as prices soften, so even if other houses sold recently for close to this amount, doesn’t mean this one will sell for close, if prices are indeed starting to suffer declines that in some cases approach double digits…
“$300k a year and can’t afford a modest home.”
Sure you can. It’s called an apartment.
That said, the going price on these houses is $900k to $1m. This will need to come down to reflect that.
Other areas in Brooklyn are lovely and everyplace has their benefits but I love this neighborhood. Im fortunate to be able to afford to live here – Im not settling. Cobble Hill and Park Slope are great but I have no desire to live there. Regardless of whether I could afford to live elswhere, Im quite happy here. I hope everyone feels the same way about where they choose to live. Whats the point of living in anywhere at any price if you feel like you’re just waiting to move out to greener pastures? Seems like a very unsatisfying way to live out your life.
The idea that ALL families select Windsor Terrace as a lesser alternative is a falacy. Im sure there are many people that do that but there are just as many people who select this area because they prefer it. As anyone who lives here knows, there are a lot of advantages that people too busy holding their nose up are missing.
tybur – Not true, you can move to Staten island and pick up a house just like this for a much more reasonable amount.
Wasn’t Archie Bunker’s House kind of Arts and Crafts inside? That house would probably be listed for 1.9 million today.
I think they only had one terlet too.
I much prefer the house from the inside (arts and crafts) as from the outside (1930’s Queens).