House of the Day: 102 Prospect Place
This two-family townhouse at 102 Prospect Place in Park Slope just hit the market last week asking $1,699,000. The house, which is configured as a double duplex has some nice original detail and looks to be in good shape, but the lack of kitchen and bathroom photos is a bit of a red flag; the…
This two-family townhouse at 102 Prospect Place in Park Slope just hit the market last week asking $1,699,000. The house, which is configured as a double duplex has some nice original detail and looks to be in good shape, but the lack of kitchen and bathroom photos is a bit of a red flag; the 19-by-35-foot floorplate is also a little on the small size. Still, the asking price doesn’t seem crazy for the neighborhood. Thoughts?
102 Prospect Place [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
Very intelligent comments by MoneyForNothing but it doesn’t get any simpler for a bottom call than NY Case-Shiller YOY turning positive. Data goes back to the 80’s and shows such a threshold to be valid with an error of no longer than nine months and a relative flatline that lasts a few years. Missing the bottom would be very difficult when focused on this index. Anything else (specific Brooklyn proper data/listings, etc.) is just detail that ultimately backs up the metro-wide index. Index up 200% from trough, multi-fam-brownstones/condos/coops up 200% from trough. Index down 21% from peak and dropping, multi-fam-brownstones/condos/coops 21% down from peak and dropping.
Remember, any difference in price between hoods was already intrinsically built in before the bubble. So half off accross the board.
[not to mention historically fundamental ratios like 3X median income and 10 X annual rent – yes NYC applicable!]
***Bid half off peak comps***
For a nice double-duplex with 2 BR’s and amenities you could get anywhere from $2800-$3400 rent depending on the size of the bldg and if it has access to the garden
OK, so we’re maybe near $500K worth of mortgage. Depends on the rate. There are calculators that can do this math.
Still an awfully long spread from a $900K condo, which iI consider a good proxy for a very nice home for a family in NY.
There are no tailwinds keeping these things at these levels. We lag national market and interest rates will pressure prices further once we get to that phase of the game.
Nice place. but IMHO, no need to offer even remotely close to ask, there will be more like it available over the next 18 months. If you are risk adverse, it’s worth sitting and waiting.
Be a Sideliner!!
Park Sloper makes an imortant point here….
All these places are priced as if no work is needed to be done. The baseline $1.7 million number requires $500K up front when it’s all said and done. Leaves very little room for any renovation monies.
And you need to be the kind of person who HAS that sort of money, but doesn’t feel particular about how you’d like your very special home to be configured.
So they’ve reduced the buyer pool even further: Cash rich, qualified for the mortgage, not risk adverse, and in spacial and aethetic alignment with the sellers.
I think anyone who fits this profile is really looking at the 2 Million dollar homes and avoiding the headaches.
For a nice double-duplex with 2 BR’s and amenities you could get anywhere from $2800-$3400 rent depending on the size of the bldg and if it has access to the garden
$1.35-$1.5 Million makes a tidy 20-25% drop for the general asking on these kinds of places.
I believe represents a realistic decline to expect ultimately (vs the 40% average for the MSA called for by Dutsche Bank).
You’d still be above value from 2004 levels, which means not an obscene drop for more coveted property. Which also sounds about right to me and jives with affirming a semblance of common-sense “is this a good business decision?”
Until these prices make that sort of sense to buyers, only those who have enough cash to not care if they lose equity/money, and who have no fear of not being able to make monthly payments–which is a rare breed these days–then I think you can safely wait to purchase.
B/C the recent stock market rally has enboldened sellers and made buyers less confident to low ball.
It takes a while to eat a chocodile…
Keep in mind, too, that the current configuration isn’t the optimal use of the space, so this place may need more work than it seems. Personally, I think it’s a waste to devote the high-ceilinged parlor floor to bedrooms. I’d want to flip it all around: bring the kitchen up to the parlor level, install a deck down to the patio, create a half bath on this floor, and have the living and dining areas up here as well. Then, create 2 or 3 bedrooms on the garden level, along with a renovated full bathroom. That’s a significant reno job, all in all.
I like this block, though. It’s a bit off the beaten North Slope track, and it’s quiet, yet still near good transportation options.
is $1.6/$1.7 million even in the ballpark for making this a good business decision?!”
Posted by: tybur6 at August 11, 2009 2:39 PM
No. These places are all overpriced, plain and simple. Everyone keeps estimating price/deal based on relative peers. That is the wrong metric unless you need to buy now, which I’ve never understood.
Family earning 300K total should be able to easily purchase a place like this and rent out the apartment.
As one of those people, I find these places unappealing from a value perspective. Unless you are dying to own a house vs condo, and I sorta am, it makes little sense to spend an additional $700K (with $175K of that up front @ 25% up front, what it takes to get a loan of this size) to pull in approx $400K in rent over the lifetime of the loan (I believe that’s what $2,500 a month nets you more or less).
You are paying an additional $300K premium for the equity you are purchasing via your renter to cover the spread from a $900K condo—no cheap place in it’s own right, mind you. And you have to be a landlord.
You are probably better off buying the lesser condo route otherwise and taking $300-$400K to purchase a condo and renting that out if you want to get in the investment property game. Spreads your risk across 2 properties, and costs less to do so. But you don’t get a nice housie-house.
I am fairly set on going the brownstown route. But I believe these places “make sense” at $1.3-$1.5 Mil max depending on the spread vs comparable cost of a condo unit floor-though at any given time.
$700-$800K more for $400K worth of rent max plus the reduced buyer pool able to put together $425K up front @ 1.7 Mil means a reduced buyer pool able to pull it off (or want to) It is also a risky proposition, and we are in a real-estate risk adverse environment IMHO.
And so it will sit….and get cut….and maybe get delisted after seller fatigue. I’ve seen it happen to many many places over the last 10 months.
It’s a “double duplex” — meaning one of the units is a rental unit.
I always bring this up… is $1.6/$1.7 million even in the ballpark for making this a good business decision?!
We’re talking, what, about $6500 a month (with 30% down) just for the mortgage payment. Let’s say the taxes are a “wash” because of the amazing tax deduction everyone raves about…
i dunno. Seems pretty “tight” when you include maintenance costs, etc etc etc etc
Isn’t that a wedge-shaped property? Wonder what the garden’s like.