House of the Day: 233 Garfield Place
We absolutely love this house at 233 Garfield Place that just hit the market. In fact, we’d rather buy a place like this that has all of its architectural details in place but is a little rough around the edges than a similar place that’s been too fancied up. Assuming the former was priced at…
We absolutely love this house at 233 Garfield Place that just hit the market. In fact, we’d rather buy a place like this that has all of its architectural details in place but is a little rough around the edges than a similar place that’s been too fancied up. Assuming the former was priced at a sufficient discount to the former, of course. And that’s the question here: This three-family place is beautiful but it’s been in the same family for 60 years and so may not appeal to people who need brand new kitchens and bathrooms. Given all that, is the asking price of $2,500,000 realistic?
233 Garfield Place [Heights Berkeley] GMAP P*Shark
That 43,000 number doesnt seem surprising at all. Perhaps I feel that way because I’m a professional, and many of my friends, classmates, and friends of friends, etc travel in professional circles. But it boggles my mind how many people I know who earn over $200K. And they seem to marry eachother! Lawyer marries doctor. Consultant marries ad exec. Banker marries VP of sales. And so on and so on. And that doesnt take into account family money, foreign money etc. There are plenty of buyers out there who can handle a purchase like this.
Of course those who bought the last few years and the developers are those who will hurt the most. There will be a lot of pain before the market corrects. No wonder credit is cheap; no one wants it to buy ridiculously overpriced/unaffordable properties needing renovation and landlord waste of time.
There was, and probably still is, a large pool of people in New York with $500k to drop and with enough income to float a $9,000 mortgage. 2 Years ago, the culture in the city was such that if you had the money and the income level, that is what you did. You bought as much house as you could “afford” and grew into it, both in terms of family and income.
Now, many people want a cushion. They are not as confident they will continue to take in $20k gross a month forever, and maybe that $500k is down to $350k. If you have a high paying job, it is scary to think that you would have to trade down if you ever lost it.
The pool of potential buyers for $2m Brownstones and $1m condos is wayyyy down. The sales will still happen, but any uptick in supply is going to do some damage to the market.
If for some reason the economy starts to really grow, not just level off or stagnate, then things can change.
bkl you’re not firing on all cylinders.
for your edification, the vast majority of “people who own” are comfortably enjoying their homes, neighborhood, borough and city. selling, price adjusting or not, is occurring only on the margins. and yes these transactions determine price today.
where’s the tank? i know i know: it’s coming just watch.
“That’s why NYC RE is tanking.”
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On a seasonally adjusted basis, home prices in San Diego were up 2 percent in July; Los Angeles rose 1.2 percent; and San Francisco increased 2.9 percent. New York rose 0.9 percent, while Minneapolis, the best-performing city, was up 3.1 percent. Without the adjustments, which is how Case-Shiller numbers were reported until recently, the increases were all somewhat greater.
“As distasteful as he is…”
Man, now dope, that one hurts.
I’m just givin you the straight dope, from the perspective of (I think) a relatively rational buyer of means, with a little macro-economic flair and you have to go and piss in my cheerios.
I’m taking you out of the will.
“however, what he fails to consider is that just about everyone buying a TH is trading up. the 10 yr mega real estate run up in NYC benefitted those who were in at the beginning, but unfortunately disadvantaged those that were not. even with the recent sell-off.”
You fail to realize that people who own are those who cannot sell or need to consider lowering their price significantly before buying. And those who bought in the 90s or earlier have no problem lowering their prices. That’s why NYC RE is tanking.
We have to assume anyone buying a 2 million dollar home is coming from another home and this isn’t their first home purchase, no? Or at least the majority of them…?
If they bought a home or apartment in NYC anytime before let’s say 2004 or 05, they are probably sitting on quite a bit of equity in which to put into these brownstones.
Can we at least agree on that?
So yes…400K combined income with a prior sale (seemed obvious to me that a large majority of 2 million dollar homes are most likely selling something else) would be just the type of buyer this seller would be looking for…
And just for clarification, Bkplebe, (although you wouldn’t think I’d need to clarify such a thing) if 43,000 households in NYC make over 200K, you do realize that dare I say thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of those make in the millions per year.
Just because they make over 200K, doesn’t mean it’s $200,001 dollars per year.
Do you people live in a hole and not realize that people across the bridge are still dropping 5, 10, 20, 30 million dollars for houses and apartments…?