House of the Day: 167 Baltic Street
This 4,500-square-foot brick house at 167 Baltic Street in Cobble Hill was purchased by the current owners in 2006 for $2,750,000. It appears the three-family house was then renovated before being put back on the market last spring for $3,900,000; after not selling, the price was increased to $3,995,000. Some of the choices don’t work…
This 4,500-square-foot brick house at 167 Baltic Street in Cobble Hill was purchased by the current owners in 2006 for $2,750,000. It appears the three-family house was then renovated before being put back on the market last spring for $3,900,000; after not selling, the price was increased to $3,995,000. Some of the choices don’t work for us (the cabinetry is a little too dominating in our opinion but that could be because of the lack of furniture and decoration), but overall it looks like a good-quality job. Seems pricey though, no?
167 Baltic Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
This is Baltic Street, not Brooklyn Heights. The rental value of this place is probably $12k /month ($3000 per floor).
That means that an investor hoping to make 8% wouldn’t pay more than $1.5m assuming no further effects of the recession.
Looked at another way, 4500 ft x $300 psf = $1.35m replacement cost.
These are two of the three methods bank appraisers are required to use, and increasingly they are going to be the key ones to determine what the banks are willing to lend. (The third one, comparative sales, is useless, since the comps are all based on unsustainable bubble prices). With bank appraisals coming in at these numbers, how long will it take before buyers are neither willing nor able to go much higher?
If my rental or construction cost guesses are right, anything over $1.5m is either pure bubble speculation (it’s ok to overpay, because someone else will overpay even more next year even without bank help), or based on a strange belief that rents are about to soar, or pure consumption — like buying an expensive car knowing that it will be worthless in a few years.
If I’m wrong about rents or replacement cost, give me more realistic numbers. The asking price implies a rental value of about $28k/month, which seems ludicrous to me.
*I shouldn’t have assumed NorthHeights is a he. Sorry.*
Here’s another way of looking at it: the current owners bought it for 2.75 mil. Say they put in $200,000 to $250,000 in renovations. (Not sure they did.) That brings it up to $3 mil. If they price it at $3.3 mil, there’s a 10% return on investment, less whatever corcoran gets. Yet the pricing is about 30% return, less what Corcoran gets. Talk about unrealistic expectations.
NorthHeights and nyc87, thanks for the info. Out of interest, I added up the total price ($50,196,500) and square footage (50,700) of the sales he listed to come up with an average price per square foot of $990. Applying that to the 4,500 square foot home above totals $4.455MM.
Before anyone jumps on this, I recognize every home is very different, the markets (real estate and stock) have changed since the sales above, etc., etc…just for fun, I wanted to see what number I’d get.
PS29 was never considered “the best” school in Brooklyn. It is a very good school, but considering it “the best” just comes down to the subjective judgment of the neighborhood.
oh hooray! thank goodness we can benefit from the delta-minus brainwaves of househunt for guidance.
He should either go back on his meds or ask his doctor to up the anti-depression medication. if there is anything worse than a know-nothing dope, it’s a depressive know nothing dope.
Totally ridiculous. I think the folks at Corcoran have really lost a screw. I’ve seen similar pricing on other of their properties — home purchased in 2005-6 at top dollar and now seller looking to make money on it. Here there was work, but as many have said, pretty poor work, above home depot quality.
As for PS29, it is no longer considered the best PS in Brooklyn, in part because it is horribly overcrowded, much like the prized 321 in the Slope. Bloomberg warns a 5-7% cut, how do you think 29 will be looking then?
It is a 25-foot wide four-story house. those are rare in the heights without 18 rent-control tenants in residence.
If you want, I could post all of the sales data from the past 5 years. You’ll see the number that sold north of $5 million – literally just a handful. But I don’t think it would convince you. I normally agree with you, or at least respect your opinion, but on this one, you’re enamored with the idea that BH prices are in the stratosphere and ignoring reality. Besides a few megamansions on the promenade or other special houses, they weren’t ever that high, and certainly aren’t that high in 2008.
Back to this house, my point is, this house is nothing special that would vault it into that rarified category, on this block or on any block in the Heights. It’s nice but not spectacular.
I’m not denying that BH is expensive, I just don’t see why you insist on saying this particular house would be $6 million there – it’s just not reasonable. Do you mean that when this house was a dump before their $1 million renovation that it would have been a $5 million house in the heights? So show me the $5 million dumps there.