House of the Day: 532 3rd Street
This limestone house at 532 3rd Street in Park Slope was an Open House Pick back in March 2007 when it was listed for $2,600,000; it quickly went into contract at the asking price. Now the 18-foot-wide single-family is back on the market for $3,200,000. It’s hard to see pulling off a 20% mark-up from…
This limestone house at 532 3rd Street in Park Slope was an Open House Pick back in March 2007 when it was listed for $2,600,000; it quickly went into contract at the asking price. Now the 18-foot-wide single-family is back on the market for $3,200,000. It’s hard to see pulling off a 20% mark-up from a year and a half ago, given that there’s only been bad news for the market since then. Whatever. Nice house, though.
532 3rd Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Open House Picks 3/17/08 [Brownstoner]
Crowing is unseemly, but it’s fair to point out how rosy some people think the situation is right now; only yesterday or the day before, someone was twitting (stupidly) DOW 8000 for his handle, as if he’d have to revise it upward now the stock market was rebounding. People who have never been around rich people imagine some lofty world where suffering hardship is letting one servant go and eating less frequently at Daniel and Per Se. Those people do not live in Brooklyn; they will be hunkering down in a tiny oasis of affluence called the Upper East Side, while regular rich folk –who do in fact buy houses with debt –see their equity, such as it, collapse. A LOT of this population of quasi-rich did in fact buy in Brooklyn, and carry heavy mortgages. The conventional wisdom calls for a slow leak; I see an ’09 implosion. I’m only talking my book. Guess what –we all are. Let’s see who is right.
gkw – actually, I’ve also said that no one really know where the market is headed other than it does not seem to be headed up. But how far down and for how long is anyone’s guess. I’ve also pointed out that “crowing” (if by that you mean I hope to have an impact on the market) is useless – the market will do what it will do regardless of any one opinion. This is a blog about real estate so I’m just putting in my comments like anyone else i.e. pointing out comps. And “comfortable” is relative – we’re actually in a very modest rental right now (more modest than I would like since it’s very small and we have kids) precisely because we are nervous about the economy and don’t take things for granted.
Anyway, I do suspect after reading more about this house that the sellers are factoring a significant difference between ask and close, so at the very least they can recoup what must have been significant costs just to buy/own this for 18 months.
Miss Muffet – since you have laid out your comfortable situation many times on this blog (sold at peak, currently waiting to buy house you like when prices seem appropriate), your constant reiteration of the negative direction of the market is starting to me to sound a lot like crowing – in spite of your polite tone and in spite of the fact that I agree with your assessment.
Poley – do you mean servan’t quarters?
According to Property Shark, the owner took out a mortgage in the amount of $2,340,000 for a purchase price of $2,600,000. So that makes for a hefty monthly outlay!
I agree this is a prime location, and the layout of the house is fine, but it’s not comparable to many of the other houses on that block of Third Street, or one block further up between 8th Avenue and PPW: all of the lovely woodwork has been painted over; heat is via radiators; no central air; the English basement is unfinished; and with no pictures of the kitchen and bathrooms, it’s possible they’re sub-par. The back gardens in those houses are also very small.
My guess is that the asking price was set at a level so that, with the inevitable mark-downs, the owners can hopefully at least break even. No reason to sell now unless they have to, so I wish them luck. This should be a good barometer of what can happen in this market to folks that have to sell for job-related or other financial reasons.
Also, I’ve always thought these houses looked more like they were constructed as 3-family buildings rather than single family homes. No stoop, no easy access to the basement where presumably the kitchen and slave’s quarters were kept.
Wasder:
Mortgages are public record. Just check on ACRIS. These turkeys took out a 90% loan on their house.
The mortgage appears to be in the name of two people at 200 Park Avenue in Manhattan, so hopefully they are professional flippers and not fools who bought their primary home with 90% financing.
Dow, I’m confused by your posts today since they seem both bearish and bullish at the same time. Anyway, this house is nice, and I realize the link I provided (previous versions of the post had photos, not sure why they’re not there now) is not an exact comp, but I’m just pointing out that a number of houses on 3rd Street, between 6th and the Park have been on the market recently and/or sold for MUCH less than this house. This house is nice, but I just don’t know if it’s THAT much nicer than houses that are basically the same size (if not larger), in same location, and in a condition that is probably almost as good albeit perhaps with not as much fancy plasterwork. Plus, the pool of buyers in this climate has shrunk greatly.
Miss Muffet is right. Anybody in any ‘hood could be underwater. Examples abound: Hamptons, Ed McMahon, etc.