House of the Day: 318 1st Street
The owners of 318 1st Street, who paid $1,775,000 for their three-story brownstone in 2005, set about trying to sell their house back in February by listing it with Brown Harris Stevens for $2,250,000; in March, the price bumped up to $2,300,000. We tapped it as an Open House Pick in June when it’s unclear…
The owners of 318 1st Street, who paid $1,775,000 for their three-story brownstone in 2005, set about trying to sell their house back in February by listing it with Brown Harris Stevens for $2,250,000; in March, the price bumped up to $2,300,000. We tapped it as an Open House Pick in June when it’s unclear who was listing the house (FSBO?). Now it’s back on the market with Corcoran, asking $2,099,000. Despite some not-so-hot bathrooms and unimpressive kitchen, the house has a very nice vibe, including some lovely plaster details. At 2,670 square feet, though, it is relatively small as far as these things go. Thoughts?
318 1st Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Open House Picks: 6/20/08 [Brownstoner]
I just saw 318 1st Street on Craigslist, and out of curiousity, I called the owner. I subsequently saw the house in person.
This house needs no work whatsoever unless wants to put in useless, trendy details. The house is charming, has
central air, the exterior is in very good shape, the price has just been reduced quite a bit. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t sell quickly now.
Note: Some of you are really out of touch with what this house offers and the person who mentioned that Property Shark doesn’t factor in the garden floor is probably correct. Moreover, the house also has a finished basement with bathroom.
At the current price, I think it should go quickly.
Yes I did create a new column with the formula, but it was simply sales price divided by square footage, and then averaged. As I said, you have to take the final number ($1,037) with a healthy grain of salt, given the issues with the square footage data and the need to make some reasonable choices on which sales to include/exclude, but it’s a start. Brooklyn Heights in particular is interesting to examine through this data, because there are usually only 15-20 townhouse sales per year so it’s pretty easy to spot when adjustments to DoF’s data need to be made to get closer to an apples-to-apples comparison. On the other hand, the sample size is probably smaller than optimal for stats purposes.
Thanks NorthHeights. Just so I’m clear – I did download the Excel file but it looks like the PSF is not a column the city provides. Did you manually create the formula yourself for Brooklyn Heights townhouses and averaged them yourself? I don’t have the time to do this now, but it’s an interesting tool for the future.
Go to the Department of Finance’s “Rolling Sales Update” page (TinyURL included because the link is long):
http://tinyurl.com/2jacwn
They have data going back to 2003, combining sales data reported every time a deed is recorded together with the building info they keep on file for property tax purposes. If you download the excel files, you can easily calculate the PSF price.
I made no claim as to whether those prices are rationale or sustainable – I was simply refuting the claim that “very few” houses in Brooklyn Heights sell over a certain price PSF. The original poster didn’t give any time period so I assume he meant now. The last 12 months is the best proxy for “now” that we have.
You could quibble with various parts of this methodology and it helps to follow the market closely to know what adjustments to make (DOF’s square footage is not always accurate and is inconsistent as to whether garden floor space is included; sometimes townhouses classified by the city as walk-up rentals should be included because it’s clear from subsequent renovation plans filed with DoB that the buyer intends to convert back to 1-/2-family). That said, I think my basic point is sound.
I always find it interesting to compare the historical data to what figures people here toss around as the “going rate” or “market” rates.
NorthHeights – can you please supply the source of your statistic? Many of us look to Property shark for stats – if you got this information there, can you provide a link? Also, keep in mind that in a classic bubble, the peak is just that – an irrational exuberance that pushes prices way beyond their rational value, so even if prices indeed were as high as you say over last 12 months, that could very simply be an indication of the degree of irrationality. So, in addition to providing the link to show your average PSF price of 1037, it would be even more helpful to show how that PSF grew over the last 5-10 years, since it’s the speed and unprecedented steepness of the rise that, in the near future, will be demonstrated to have been so clearly irrational and unsustainable.
“Very few townhouses, even ones directly facing the river in Brooklyn Heights, have sold for $700/sq ft even in pristine, high-end renovated condition. $600/sq. ft at the top of the market, but never $700/sq ft.”
According to the city’s records, over the last 12 months, the average PSF price for all 1- and 2-family houses in Brooklyn Heights was $1,037. The lowest was $811.
Nice try, though.
After this recession we will be lucky if anyone wants to buy anything in NYC. The bad neighborhoods are doomed. The good neighborhoods will need to suck it in and accept the fact that people are not making so much dough any more, they cannot pay crazy prices. I worry about NYC. I really do. It is like this is our apocalypse. The hype and the speculation is falling like a bad souffle. I don’t see a lot of pouf any more in our financial sector. This is an old-fashioned crash folks. Some day you will tell your grandchildren you lived through it. If you do.
Interesting comparison to yesterdays HOTD on Washington
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/hotd_306_washin.php#comments
I think both are overpriced, but this make’s the Washington Ave house look like a steal.
This is a cute, smallish, middle-class house. It should cost around a million dollars. But in Brooklyn, the realtors think it should cost much more because the owners will of course no want to occupy the whole thing but rather rent out the garden level. That income can boost what they can handle in monthly carrying charges, and since no one in Brooklyn really cares about quality of life, or elegance, or privacy, or convenience, it will make sense to those who think that they need to mortgage their lives to live like peasants in a sub-divided small house, because that is what our realtor told us we could afford.