House of the Day: 135 Lafayette Avenue
This five-story, 5,810-square-foot townhouse at 135 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene hit the market a couple of weeks ago with a price tag of $2,875,000, unusually expensive for house not on a park block. The house has been updated in a tasteful way and looks particularly spacious in the new Corcoran full-screen photo viewer. On…
This five-story, 5,810-square-foot townhouse at 135 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene hit the market a couple of weeks ago with a price tag of $2,875,000, unusually expensive for house not on a park block. The house has been updated in a tasteful way and looks particularly spacious in the new Corcoran full-screen photo viewer. On the downside, it’s right next door to a less-than-scenic deli and doesn’t have much of a backyard to speak of. Reactions?
135 Lafayette Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
To me it points out yet again the extremely low expectations and low quality of expensive housing for the middle class in Brooklyn.
Posted by: Minard Lafever at September 21, 2009 6:46 PM
Now Minard, please. You’re just being bitter and unpleasant 😉
“PS 20 and PS 11 are not bad schools (and probably improving now that the principal on at PS 20 is on leave and probably not coming back).”
For most families in the 2.5 million dollar home market I’d say they are.
But you are correct on the Principal at PS 20—assualting a teacher and alienating the entire “gentrified” parent group that wanted to get actively involved in the school seems to be about what it takes to do the trick. Insideschools.org’s parent comments made it sound horrendous.
MoneyForNothing, you’re consistently bitter and unpleasant.
At least you’re consistent.
Posted by: Nomi at September 21, 2009 5:03 PM
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Just calling em like I see em, Nomi.
I didn’t come here to make nice chit chat.
Couples making $300+K a year with no debt and six-figure savings are effectively priced out of much of this market until it retracts (and it will). That’s my profile, and yeah that makes me bitter. I suspect I’m not alone.
Considering the situation was largely engineered by Wall Street’s WFMD and the Federal Reserve at our collective expense, I think we all have a lot to be bitter about when it comes to the NYRE market and our economic future in general.
But let’s keep talking about the drapes, doesn’t matter that the infrastructure is in serious disrepair….
This building was built as a large house but now it is a small walk-up tenement. In order for it to be profitable rents for each apartment needs to be about $3,000 each. This is impossible in this rough location. I know I know edgy Fort Greene is absolutely hot, but maybe not that hot. This is an abusively high price for a subdivided house that most Americans would think is sub-par. ridiculous. To me it points out yet again the extremely low expectations and low quality of expensive housing for the middle class in Brooklyn.
The nice guy bought the house for $180K + $300K reno (this reno is rather old by now) in 1995.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/27/realestate/habitats-135-lafayette-avenue-architect-renovates-a-home-for-himself-in-brooklyn.html
THIS was a good investment purchase so prospective buyers take note.
BkPlebe, I never mentioned the niceness of the owner-architect had anything to do with the asking price or think it is a predictor of the eventual sale price…and this house WILL sell…I’d probably bet a dollar on that… 😉
I live in Fort Greene and I wouldn’t think this is *not* prime Fort Greene, MoneyForNothing. What are you talking about? It’s “prime”…hhh…
Everyone, they’ll GET an offer. Trust me. There’s a lot of exasperation in the air me thinks.
A smaller three-family on South Portland (one of those “4 1/2 houses” where the front dormer is not really visible from the street–the fifth floor has a very low ceiling in the front but is normal in the rear) sold for much more than this house’s ask.
So go figure. Considering the size, I wouldn’t be surprised they get well over 2…sure not 3 million…but a regular 4-storey house across the street from this one sold just shy of 2 million this past year. You Kids, do the online research…I’m not sure how to…but I’m pretty sure Corcoran sold one for nearly 2 million.
Anyway, no one seemed to mention that this big house can give the new owners lots and lots of space to take over. No one says you have to have tenants you know. I know all about *that*.
The corner store next to this house has *got* to become something more lucrative at some point. I believe the store-owners own the whole building so when they finally make up their minds to get acrackin’, I’m sure that building (which has another ground floor business space on the Cumberland side) can be turned into a money machine. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t bother to do anything apparent with that building during the last years. It has a huge sidewalk area that I’m sure can legally be used as an outdoor cafe area like Mullane’s.
To the other side of today’s House of the Day, is a very, very well managed coop. Those apartments are nice and always sell well when they happen to come on the market. Very desirable. Plus, between the above house and coop buildings (former brick rowhouses) being set far back, there’s a gracious street appeal. One other thing, the coop has a large, large combined backyard which makes for a big green space right next to this house’s backyard.
Across the street, newsflash, the Nigerian restaurant looks like it is soon opening (curtains, window decorations, signage). Jeff/Jonathan, no entry on this development?
In terms of safety and covenience, you’re really close to the trains (and Fulton shopping) but also just a block from the park and farmers’ market, a couple blocks down from the world-famous 😉 Brooklyn Flea…and people truck back and forth on Lafayette all hours now. It seems pretty darn safe since it’s a pedestrian thoroughfare.
Sure, I wouldn’t mind living in a park-facing brownstone but I wouldn’t want to have to walk the extra long block(s) or two at night after taking the subway…but this never happens with me so what am I talking about? 😉
Okay, I’ll shut up already…
You assume that the person who sells the 1br in UWS or UES has no mortgage. Chances are that if he she bought the last few years he is underwater.
In fact there is no buyer for this at this price point. The only buyers for such buildings are investors. Everyone knows that NY RE will find a bottom if such buildings are attractive to investors. But I will agree that there are always fools although hard to find nowadays (they are underwater).
You’re right that the person looking at $2.5 million single family houses (or 2 families) is probably going to pass on this.
However, I don’t think the person looking to buy this to live in is capable of (or intersted) in buying a 3 million house (or even a 2.3 million dollar house at which this one is is more likely to move). The potential buyer here is someone with a new kid selling a cramped one-plus BR in the East Village or UWS who might (i) view this as a lot more space and better layout and (ii) be able to put down 500K as a down payment (much of it coming from the sale of the apartment in Manhattan). If they can deal with being a LL then he or she could be a lot happier than in a lot of co-op equivalents.
Also, PS 20 and PS 11 are not bad schools (and probably improving now that the principal on at PS 20 is on leave and probably not coming back).
“I’m sure this will appeal to someone. The man who renovated this from the SOR it was up through the 80s is an architect…and a nice guy.”
Are you suggesting that the price is right because the guy is nice? I am sorry but this places makes no sense even for half price. Unless a building returns a profit for the person who buys it or the nice guy finds a fool it won’t be sold in this market.
The price per sq foot as well as paying to live in it is bubble-reminiscent. Bubble made people believe that no matter the price it would appreciate soon and justify the monthly premium. Those days are long gone. This house should reward financially the buyer who decides to play the landlord.