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
The banks are flush with cash? The banks are flush with cash?? Which banks –name one. We’re living through the worst credit contraction in finance history, and you say the banks are flush with cash? God help you, and anyone who listens to you. The banks are insolvent. You may have noticed, they are going out of business. (And before you tell me it’s only –only! –the I-banks, name a retail bank; let’s look at its balance sheet together, shall we?)
One clue to this insolvency –the need for an RTC-like entity that you, with your next breath, think may bail you out of your bad real estate book, the one you tiresomely talk up every day on Brownstoner.
And while we’re at it: The RTC took over assets from DEAD ENTITIES. Do you think this new RTC is just going to politely relieve WaMu and Goldman Sachs of their toxic loans, so that status quo can resume? Are you insane?
Get your head around the negative cascade: NO BONUSES. (That’s a beginning. There might not be a Wall Street on Monday.)
It’s not in The What’s head anymore. IT’S ON CHANNEL 15. The day when people named Daveinbedtsuy could come on here and twit The What as a chicken little and bitter renter are over. The days of cowed yuppies crawling out to slums to buy into his shitty tenements are over.
Please, please, try to get a grip.
Wasder – responsible financial management can only help. I don’t think the reality of what has happened this week has sunk in here – this was posted today on ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5832116&page=1
Manhattan’s finest co-op apartments may have already lost a fourth of their value as a result of the financial crisis, and the worst is yet to come…
By the way – this is me i disagree… “the midlevel managers, doctors, lawyers and other dual-income professional families …” I am qualified to buy the HOTD BUT I won’t be buying until sellers (and brokers) drop their prices. Anyway either my husband or I will probably lose their job in the next round of layoffs, and just add to the pool of ever-diminishing buyers…
Good point I Disagree. Certainly fits in my case.
No sweat Dave.
HellsBelles–you are no doubt correct on the whole that the pool of qualified buyers is way smaller than it used to be and therefore prices will drop. But there has to be a way forward as well and if banks are using this infusion of cash to lend responsibly to new buyers this might keep things from becoming too much of a blood bath.
“I don’t think many people are qualified…People weren’t qualified to buy into these homes to begin with – not in any real terms.” What people and what homes are you talking about? What a ridiculous generalization. Yes, lots of people who bought into homes across the country over the past 7 years weren’t “really” qualified, but I doubt that most of the potential buyers for a home like the HOTD fit into that category. The buyers who will be most immediately affected by this crisis (those at the top and the bottom) for the most part weren’t buying places like this. It’s the midlevel managers, doctors, lawyers and other dual-income professional families who buy places like this, and they’re likely still qualified. In real terms.
thank you for letting me know about that wasder
There is credit (I think a LOT is grossly exaggerated given that the biggest lenders on Wall Street are fighting for their very existence)…IF you are qualified. I don’t think many people are qualified. So yes, maybe there is some credit but few qualified buyers. Sellers need buyers, and that pool of “qualified” buyers is shrinking every day. People weren’t qualified to buy into these homes to begin with – not in any real terms. Either way the market now slows down and prices fall.
Meanwhile the Dow is up over 400. I’m so old, I remember when a 400 point movement really meant something! Now it seems to happen at least once a week.
I sure hope so. I’ve been taking copious notes in my marble notebook.