House of the Day: 29 4th Place
The asking price of $1,695,000 for the three-story house at 29 4th Place in Carroll Gardens looks like a reasonable price on its surface. The catch? The brownstone is stuck painfully somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s. It’s not in terrible shape, but it’ll definitely take some money and effort to bring it…
The asking price of $1,695,000 for the three-story house at 29 4th Place in Carroll Gardens looks like a reasonable price on its surface. The catch? The brownstone is stuck painfully somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s. It’s not in terrible shape, but it’ll definitely take some money and effort to bring it up to a level most buyers will want. The deal has a kicker though: An extra 1,800 square feet of air rights. Can you say rooftop addition?
29 4th Place [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
THL, I was going to add in the “Har Har!”, but was confident you would be on top of your game as usual and do it. You never disappoint!
Regarding the rest of your post: my thoughts exactly. Life is too short. Hopefully, everyone has prepared as best they can for their future and all we can do is brace ourselves for the worst and hope for the best. If my home drops in value by 80%, I won’t be happy but I still won’t lose it.
It’s great having other cyber (and “real-life”) friends like you THL, who get it.
Thanks Biff. Har Har! Mine are good, thanks for asking. Yours? Good too I hope!
It’s true no one know with any certainty what’s going to happen but why can’t we enjoy ourselves while it plays out?
Most of us have already made moves to secure our funds in the safest ways possible and now we wait just like everyone else. Granted I’m not making any big money this year but I’m also not losing any so I’m happy.
I mean heck, it’s it’s going to be all doom and gloom then I mine as well take it with a grain of salt and a smile on my face no? Should I just sit here and cry over my 401K statement? What’s the point of that?
Think about it wrote: “The only certainty is that the solution is grounded in the housing market and that nobody on this site (including me) has any clue as to what is likely in the next 6 months, let alone the next 3 years. ”
Wisest thing written on here in a while. So sick of hearing everyone’s pontificating about something that can’t be predicted with any accuracy.
Oops, I almost forgot. TownhouseLady, your Gallstoner joke was wonderful. How ya doing, by the way? How’s the family?
“You people have the gall to come on here after years of crying “bitter renter” when anyone pointed out the RE bubble, and then chatter on (Hi Biff! Hi Dave! How ya doing Dave! Har, har, great Biff!) as if the bubble’s not bursting right beneath you?”
Whuh (Whuhwhat? Huhwhat? Whatuh?), it must really be a sad life you and others like you have that you can’t still try to have some positivity in your lives and be friendly with those around you whom you like. Quotes like yours amaze me in the sense, as much as you can’t believe Dave, I, et.al., can chatter on as cyber friends, I cannot comprehend how people like you are so negative and bitter. I’m glad I’m not like you. I really am.
For the record, I never denied that housing prices or the market could be in for tough times. My point is, and always has been, no matter what happens, I will have a roof over my head, clothes to wear and food to eat. I will also have my family and friends. You, The What and others seem to have a really hard time accepting that. Maybe you can’t say the same thing about your situation and that’s why you’re so offended by those of us who can. The situation is bad for everyone, but not dire for me…that’s just the reality.
I have worked in banking since 1991. I have worked both on Wall St and in the City (London). Not only have I never seen a financial crisis that compares to the present one, I don’t even know anyone who has. I am qualified as a lawyer in three different countries and I have owned property all over the world. My family have been in property for 2 generations and I still don’t feel qualified to advise on what is going to happen to the Brooklyn real estate market.
The irony here is that day after day, people who want to buy (albeit at a lower price than they currently can) are telling us why the real estate market is going to be crushed. How are you so certain? There is no certainty in what is going to happen. Whatever measure is put in place with the intention of turning this situation around may stabilize the property market and signal the lowest point in the housing market for NYC, it may even overshoot. The “fix” may also prove to be the greatest failed “double down” in history, and prove catastrophic to not only housing but the financial system itself. Anything between these two points on the spectrum are also possible.
To say there is no money out there is stupid. The Fed is flooding the system with money and banks are selectively lending it. The problem is not liquidity it is solvency. The banks are getting money from the fed because banks don’t want to lend to each other because they don’t know what their Counterparty’s toxic assets are marked at (and therefore if they are “pretending” to be solvent). This is why the deposit taking investment banks have done relatively well while the independent investments bans have failed.
The only certainty is that the solution is grounded in the housing market and that nobody on this site (including me) has any clue as to what is likely in the next 6 months, let alone the next 3 years.
Whah, I hear ya, but I also have to say that Chase and HSBC are running ads all over including in the windows of all their branches advertising standard mortgages. There is money out there somewhere. I assume that FM is still buying mortgages altho I notice that the big banks seem to hold the highest (best) credit mortgages on their own books. There’s a huge mortgage infrastructure in this country and it just hasn’t disappeared into the night. Banks still need to loan out their deposits.
I’m not saying all is peachy, you can see a forum post I did yesterday, but you can still, and easily, get a 30yr mortgage. Chase is advertising 5.75 on their website, which is considerably lower than the 6.125 I closed at in December.
If it was true that the banks had no money to lend, or that they needed high profits to re-capitalize, mortgage
rates would be going higher, not lower. Supply and demand and all that.
Whuh–we can only hope you never read or participate in this blog again. My wad of tobacco says “you fail”.
Seriously though for anyone else who appreciates this blog…I would venture to say that most people come here to be entertained by and participate in conversation about Brooklyn neighborhoods that we all have an attachment for. If, as looks likely, the economy tanks and real estate prices drop precipitously it will be a rough ride but I will likely still come here and read and write on this blog. What is the deal with wishing so much ill will on people here? This is why the What is not right–regardless of what he predicted in re the banking industry and real estate markets (and plenty of people would say that nothing he said was anything you couldn’t have read in the press), his obsession with seeing the lot of us raped or beaten, his turning this into some kind of classist vigilante deathmatch etc, disqualifies him from ever being right.
But then again he was also a form of entertainment, as many have pointed out. there are plenty of ways of looking at it. As long as nobody goes out of their way to attack me personally I can talk with just about anybody.
“You people have the gall to come on here after years of crying “bitter renter” when anyone pointed out the RE bubble, and then chatter on (Hi Biff! Hi Dave! How ya doing Dave! Har, har, great Biff!) as if the bubble’s not bursting right beneath you? You have the gall, after laughing about The What’s prediction of apocalypse, to come on here ON THE DAY OF THE APOCALYPSE and talk about BANKS FLUSH WITH CASH?”
Guess the name of the blog should be changed to Gallstoner!