House of the Day: 69 St. James Place
We featured this brownstone at 69 St. James Place in Clinton Hill as an Open House Pick back in June when it hit the market with a price tag of $1,995,000; it was reduced in September to $1,895,000 and again in November to $1,750,000, where it remains today. The house is in beautiful shape, with…
We featured this brownstone at 69 St. James Place in Clinton Hill as an Open House Pick back in June when it hit the market with a price tag of $1,995,000; it was reduced in September to $1,895,000 and again in November to $1,750,000, where it remains today. The house is in beautiful shape, with lots of original details and a recently resurfaced facade. We’ll see whether this will need another downward nudge to get a deal done. The fact that 298 Lafayette Avenue sold for $1,895,000 in August is encouraging, but that was pre-Lehman. Waddya think?
69 St. James Place [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
It’s not that anyone is saying Clinton Hill is undesirable, I don’t think…It’s that it’s undesirable for this price, that’s all.
I think most of us are actually kinda agreeing with you.
Although given the 20/30 minute wait times I’ve encountered on the G, that’s really the problem, not the locations to which it stops/doesn’t stops.
“I personally don’t consider the G ‘Good’ transportation (to Manhattan as I originally said)”
G to A express (@ Hoyt). Easy as pie. It’s a nice line if you’re only going a couple of stops. Less crowded than the C.
Oh well, if you guys think Clinton Hill is that undesireable, it only supports my opinion that prices there will get slaughtered like everywhere else.
***Bid half off peak comps***
If the house sells for $999,000 I’ll have wished I bought it…!!!
If I had the money, of course.
Clinton Hill does, indeed, have beautiful architecture … but I’m not sure why everyone is swooning over this one. All the woodwork has been painted over. “Functional” country kitchen probably means it needs to be ripped out. Lack of bathroom pix is also a bad sign. Mostly it seems to look good because there are pretty photos and the owners have done some nice decorating.
Property Shark shows multiple re-financings, currently in amount of $489,500. (Purchased by current owners in 1990 with mortgage of $244,000, so probably bought for $304,000 if they put 20% down, or less if they put 10% down). Does the current state of this property warrant such a mark-up? I don’t think so, especially in what really is a fringe area, where crime is going up and will probably get worse as the economy continues to deteriorate.
OK, call me cynical (that’s my name, after all! seems like this site is made for the likes of me!), but I think this might eventually sell for $999,000 (avoiding mansion tax), though even that means the owners clear over $500,000. But owners these days are still living in la-la land, thinking they can ask ruinous prices and actually get them.
Well, this is a reasonably fair minded discussion to which I will attempt to add my further two cents. 11217–I can see your point about if there are 2 million dollar homes in PS there are fewer buyers for a 1.75 million dollar house in Clinton Hill. I would however continue to disagree with your “fringe” designation (with the continued acknowledgement of my Clinton Hill residence). I don’t see much difference between Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. They are in my mind one neighborhood (in that the residents of each seem to very much share the amenities of the other) and as such think that to say Clinton Hill is fringe but Fort Greene is not is off base. My commute (when I used to have one!) to the city from Clinton Hill took between 30 and 45 minutes which is quite comparable to most of the neighborhoods included in the purview of this blog. Furthermore, there are plenty of amenities within easy walking distance of my neighborhood and, despite the fact that there has indeed been a spike in street crime in the area it would seem that this is a borough wide phenomenon. Anyway, to each his own. This house will sell eventually for somewhere north of a million dollars and the buyer will be getting what appears to be a fantastic house on a great block.
I agree, gkw….As I look around me in Park Slope…it’s the people who came in and bought their houses on the “cheap” 10/20/30 years ago who have worked so hard to make the neighborhood what it’s become…not the people who have come in and paid 2 million for a house in the last 5 years.
I’m sure there are (many) exceptions to that rule, but just as the middle class are the backbone of our country, they are also the backbone of our neighborhoods…
It is a beautiful house, but I agree that it is not in a prime location. The area has made remarkable progress over the past ten years, but perhaps not so much as to justify such a prime price.
Good point gkw. I live in Clinton Hill and know many young families that have moved out because they couldn’t afford to buy, even though they love the neighborhood.
Clinton Hill can gladly have the “yuppies” and hipsters that have moved into Bed Stuy!!!!