House of the Day: 1252 Dean Street
If this detail-rich house at 1252 Dean Street looks familiar, it’s because it was featured as a House of the Day in two years ago. At that point, it had just been listed at $1,100,000, a price that proved to be too rich for the market’s blood; after the price was dropped to $990,000 in…
If this detail-rich house at 1252 Dean Street looks familiar, it’s because it was featured as a House of the Day in two years ago. At that point, it had just been listed at $1,100,000, a price that proved to be too rich for the market’s blood; after the price was dropped to $990,000 in September, the house sold quickly for asking. Now it’s back on the market for an mind-boggling $1,375,000 and, as far as we can tell, there have been no significant improvements. Good luck with that.
1252 Dean Street [Ardor] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 1252 Dean Street [Brownstoner]
Ah- another What sighting at 10:27. You can tell by the quality of the writing.
CH an up and coming hood.ha ha.thats funny.look at the crime stats idiots.
Thanks for the listing, Brownstoner.
This may well be one of the houses I visited when growing up around the corner in Crown Heights during the 1950s.
I remember such places pretty much as they’re pictured in the listing. Dark — no matter how “modern” the owners’ tastes (as illustrated in today’s pix, too).
Of course, we kids didn’t spend much time in the formal rooms upstairs (sometimes blocked from our use by velvet ropes — can you believe it?). Most of the time we were in the kitchens and diningrooms downstairs, the same place they were located in the 1800s when the houses were built, down at “garden level.”
These were comfortable rooms to hang out and play under the watchful eyes of mothers who, true to the time, stayed at home while dads were off at work. Still, they were dark, and with lower ceilings than the rooms upstairs, seemed even more so. (No industrial-chic retrofits and appliances then. Just heavy wood cabinets and bulbous porcelain sinks, difficult to reach to pour ourselves a drink. Maybe the stove and refrigerator were new, but they always looked oddly out of place, the refrigerator stuck in some inconvenient corner because, as a rule, these houses were built before the coming of the “ice box.”)
No wonder we preferred playing outside in the backyard or, better yet, in the street.
Frankly, as handsome as the houses were, I liked my family’s apartment more. It was bright and, on the third floor, had good views front and back. (Of course, one of the views’ charms was the brownstone gardens where flowers and vines crawled up and over high wooden fences. No cyclone fencing then, thank goodness.)
This house looks an excellent example of its type. Its price will be determined by the buyer’s ability to “see” it. As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand such houses charms — and rue the day my grand parents gave up their Park Slope brownstone in the 1930’s because it was so “old-fashioned” (and Park Slope was “declining”)!
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
in my 25 years in the area i never heard of south of atlantic being bed stuy. but who gives a crap – the place is 2 blocks south of atlantic – call it crown stuy if you must.
aussie – you can’t take brownstone brooklyn as a whole. bed stuy and crown heights are getting hit – the data is already here and it’s undeniably bad. however, bk heights, prime park slope and prime fort greene are still rising. and much of the rest is staying somewhat stable.
Montrose can answer that question, chnyc. Hopefully he’ll post again.
BrooklynLove: I’m sure you are a bull. None of the bulls are very bullish and haven’t been for some time which begs the question what is tybur6 talking about?
I agree with you that sales in Brownstone Brooklyn have dramatically slowed. But it seems to me there is very limited stock also. I want to see carnage on Wall St or lots more listings (that are not selling) before I agree that there is going to be a crash in Brownstone Brooklyn. I say flat to drifting down 10% over the next 3-5 years and then a recovery to more normal appreciation of annual 5%.
The Crown Heights house could go for what it sold for last year. I love this area, it has a lot of fans, and I know developers who are still taking a chance here.
bayridgegirl writes: “Broker lists this as being in Bedford Stuyvesant. I hate when brokers don’t even know what neighborhood the house is in, or for that matter know anything about the neighborhood.”
Hold on one minute. Old-timers, and those who’ve grown up here say this block is, indeed Bed-Stuy. Yes, maps say that South of Atlantic is Crown Heights. Neighborhood people say differently. What do you know about the neighborhood?
More than one house in Crown Heights sold for over a mill but there’s a lot more just sitting. Still, compared to Park Slope and the Heights, there aren’t too many other places you can find this quality and size of old townhouse for the money. Crown Heights North is an up and coming neighborhood with great housing stock, like you said East New York. Still 900,000 is more realistic even for a house this spectacular. But in another couple of years prices will be even higher because it is a great neighborhood and will have more amenities then. And puhleezze- no Park SLope Northwest! Ugh! Eeewwww….gack! gack!
aussie – i am a major bull on brooklyn. fact is that crown heights got harmfully bloated on flipping and straws. if this place sells w/n the next 1-2 years, it will be for less than 1 mill and probably closer to 900k if not less than that. all of brownstone brooklyn stopped moving together toward the end of last year.