House of the Day: 243 Kane Street
While we’re on vacation this week, we’re spotlighting some properties that have been on the market for a long time…After being purchased for $1,802,000 in June 2007, 243 Kane Street hit the market asking $2,950,000 in July; the price was increased in September to $3,400,000 and again in May 2008 to $4,075,000 before being reduced…
While we’re on vacation this week, we’re spotlighting some properties that have been on the market for a long time…After being purchased for $1,802,000 in June 2007, 243 Kane Street hit the market asking $2,950,000 in July; the price was increased in September to $3,400,000 and again in May 2008 to $4,075,000 before being reduced slightly to $3,995,000 in June. The price stayed there until the end of December when it was trimmed to its current asking price of $3,850,000. It’s an extra-wide house in a great Cobble Hill location but the renovation, while not corner-cutting by any means, strikes us as being as much of the problem as the price. It’s one of those neither-fish-nor-fowl jobs: The house has lost its historic charm but the look that replaced it is not successful enough in its modernism to make up for it. Do you agree?
243 Kane Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
For that asking price, they could at least cover the ugly exposed range hood vent.
edifice rex – awesome login name!
boreum – it looks to me like the master is on the top floor with the double vanity.
M4L, you are obviously right on the money. It’s pure fantasy anyway. I am waiting for that special value charming wreck so I can destroy my marriage while renovating the house.
mopar – i agree with maly. i wouldn’t mind spending the dough if i had it like that on this pad.
Edifice Rex — What’s the problem with the HVAC?
Mopar — Agreed that this is not a “modernist” renovation, but more a renovation with contemporary fixtures: e.g., the clean yet slightly country style kitchen, and floating cabinet and (IMO) unappealing trough sink in the bathroom are but some of the examples of the contemporary touches.
The real problem with this house is of course while it’s move-in, I would not want to move in — at least not without significant cosmetic work on the bathrooms and probably the kitchen too. (Even assuming I could afford $3M or whatever the final price will be.)
Also, what’s with the illegible floor plan? Is there a deck off that kitchen (it looks like there might be from the kitchen photo), or do you have to shuffle downstairs for spring and summer breakfasts? Also, shouldn’t the master bathroom (which I am guessing is the one on the second floor) have a double vanity somehow given that this is a 25′ wide house?
OTOH, the fireplaces on the main floor look real nice in the photos.
Thanks more4less for the breath of sanity.
This is why the market is so soft. no one in their right mind with that kind of money would plunk it down on a potentially depreciating asset like a 3M house.
Better to live large now, bank your cash and see what happens in the next couple of years.
Why would you want to pay more every month to take a chance on a shaky market?
Maly, I would rent a big place in a hood I love (ie enjoy the perks of that hood NOW), collect peanut interest on the $$$ in bank CD’s, wait out the mkt for better clarity (up or down). if you have 2.5M in bank, no need to be a hero right now so focus on protecting that $$$ vs taking on too much risk. now if you have 50k with big taste, yeah then you’ll have to take big risk with the $$$
Well, at least I would get a house to live in. That’s more than I can say about my 401k. I have yet to understand what happened there. What would you do with 2.5M?