House of the Day: 202 Clermont Avenue
While this four-story brick townhouse at 202 Clermont Avenue still has many of its original details, they are overwhelmed, in our opinion, by the charmless, albeit thorough, renovation that was performed back in 2005. If there was any doubt that the person doing the renovation did not understand the aesthetics of most potential buyers, just…
While this four-story brick townhouse at 202 Clermont Avenue still has many of its original details, they are overwhelmed, in our opinion, by the charmless, albeit thorough, renovation that was performed back in 2005. If there was any doubt that the person doing the renovation did not understand the aesthetics of most potential buyers, just check out that garden or the bathrooms. It’s too bad because the raw materials were there. It looks like the current owner paid $1,625,000 for the house in 2006, probably just as the previous owner was completing the renovation. It went on the market in March asking $1,725,000 and was cut to $1,675,000 in May, where it remains today.
202 Clermont Avenue [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
M4L:
Regarding the schools, I totally agree w/ you. But in PS 20’s case, you should read on InsideSchools.org. There are multiple complaints about the culture of the school (led by the recently arrested principal) proactively discouraging and blocking parent involvement in the school.
So you can do your best to raise your kids right, but here, I worry specifically b/c parents have pulled their kids out of PS 20 because they were frustrated about being blocked from helping to improve the school.
have a friend who lives there, 2 young girls. He loves the hood. But both girs are in private school. he’d prefer to use them, but in his words, “they’re sh*t”.
Recently he was mugged in front of the school picking up his daughter, and they broke his jaw, he had to have it wired shut.
So safe to say, the schools in FG are a little sketch no matter how involved a parent you are. It’s a risk you have to factor in.
It’s not just Deutsche’s view though. We can thrown UrbanDigs in for what it’s worth as a local expert (N Rosenblatt), and you can read John Talbott and others for similar views. But sure, DB hardly infallable. But the chorus generally seems to agree.
Realize, none of these studies even factor in possibility of over-correcting on the downside, much like the stock market did. Just takes longer, but a completely reasonable scenario.
I’d argue we’re nowhere near capitulation b/c anecdotally we have not started to hear brokers really cry about the pain and futility. Maybe we won;t get there, but the difference between the ask/bid spread is so great on NY real estate, it’s hard to believe the Bidders are going to be the ones who trend upwards to close the gap.
The simple fact is that anyone with capital to deploy and a squeaky-clean credit profile, is likely in no hurry to catch a falling knife. Even if DB and others are only half right, we’re 350K off on the price of this place. Going to take a LOOOOONG time for sellers to come to grips with that.
So what happens? Market deteriorates around them as they wait and they are potentially further beind the curve, and the BID side of the A/B spread has drifted further away from them.
Maybe doesn;t happen, but a bottom in RE takes a long time to occur, and is very, very slow to pick up. So anyone with capital deploy and interest to purchase, like myself, is likely very very content to sit on the sidelines and wait. It’s by far the more conservative approach, and I’d argue that most normal people w/ this sort of scratch who view RE as something they want to buy now got that way by being conservative and risk adverse with their cash in the first place.
So we will wait.
below $1M, I’ll buy it. good parenting over comes many short comings of NYC public schools unless the teachers are complete idiots
Every bear here loves Deutsche Bank’s view.
Of course they’re now bearish. They now own a ton of jingle mail office buildings in nyc. which means…they’ve been wrong about real estate before.
Sidenote: didn’t they predict impending doom on the eve of the Y2K transition?
money-for-nothing: good points.
Oh, and the house is fully furnished now, which makes a difference. I believe they are renting it, because I can;t see why you’d shoot it unfurnished and then bring the furniture back in.
Other feedback is that the rental unit is pretty nice actually. Currently being used as storage by (the renters?). It’s sort of a studio-plus sized thing.
All this said, again, most economic forecasts I’ve read (Shiller, Deutsche Bank, Talbott) predict 40% decline from current value to reach highest (least acceptable) level of affordability (no more than 40% of income going towards home payments)—a rate last seen in 1998 BTW.
So as lovely as the general property is (fixable style-points aside), who exactly that the payments, taxes and insurance included on this property equals 40% of total income is looking to live on Clermont St and assumedly use private schools (PS 20 Pricipal was just arrested for assaulting a teacher in March…)
Not many is my take. They’re looking in Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights.
Brownstoner is being much too hard on this house. Minor fixes here. Just replace the wrought iron sink and plant the garden. The rest of it is quite nice. Unless…are those the replacement floors of doom I see?!
Some of you guys must have extra-zoom vision. I think it is impossible to tell from images like these whether the floor is engineered or hardwood. In fact with some of the better engineered floors it is hard to tell when standing on them.
Having said that, I as an antiquarian, prefer the old slightly uneven wide plank flooring. I also marvel at yesterday’s poster who could tell from a little image that gorgeous perfectly old-looking crown moldings was actually “injected fypon” -0uch!
MoneyforNothing – I’m in a similar situation as you and am with you 100%.