Last Week's Biggest Sales
1. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $2,975,000 36 Joralemon Street GMAP Originally listed at $3,800,000, this 3,560-sf, brick one-family had its price reduced to $3,450,000 when it was our House of the Day in January. (The previous owners bought the place for $2,325,000 in 2005.) Its listing on on StreetEasy says, “This turn-key home is graced with a…
1. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $2,975,000
36 Joralemon Street GMAP
Originally listed at $3,800,000, this 3,560-sf, brick one-family had its price reduced to $3,450,000 when it was our House of the Day in January. (The previous owners bought the place for $2,325,000 in 2005.) Its listing on on StreetEasy says, “This turn-key home is graced with a sun-filled open living room with wood burning fireplace, separate dining area and a fabulous chef’s kitchen with custom oak cabinets, CaesarStone counter tops and Viking appliances… For outside entertaining there is a spectacular roof top terrace with gas grill, built-in teak benches, an irrigation/lighting system and breathtaking harbor and Manhattan views.” Average Reader Appraisal was $2,797,171. Entered into contract on 3/8/10; closed on 4/15/10; deed recorded on 4/27/10.
2. PARK SLOPE $2,710,000
615 Second Street GMAP
This 20-foot wide, one-family limestone home hit the market in July ’08 priced at $3,495,000. In November ’09, the price was knocked down to $2,950,000. According to its listing on StreetEasy, “The huge front parlor is graced with a lovely center staircase, parquet floors and a sense of openness and light that is rarely available in the townhouses of the last century. Pocket French doors lead to the large formal dining room and half-bath. The kitchen, large and renovated, is in the extension.” Entered into contract on 1/29/10; closed on 4/20/10; deed recorded on 4/27/10.
3. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $2,250,00
40 Joralemon Street GMAP
This one-family, 2,380-sf home was originally listed at $2,790,000 last spring, according to StreetEasy, but was marked down to $2,300,000 when it was our House of the Day back in September ’09. Average Reader Appraisal was $1,892,273. Entered into contract on 1/25/10; closed on 4/20/10; deed recorded on 4/26/10.
4. PROSPECT HEIGHTS $1,900,000
1 Grand Army Plaza, #14B GMAP
This condo is located in the Richard Meier on Prospect Park, but it doesn’t much information listed on StreetEasy. Entered into contract on 10/7/09; closed on 3/31/10; deed recorded on 4/29/10.
5. PROSPECT HEIGHTS $1,800,000
282 Park Place GMAP
A House of the Day back in January, this brownstone has lots of details and is configured into an upper triplex with garden rental. Hit the market at $1,799,000 and Average Reader Appraisal was $1,627,625. Entered into contract on 1/15/10; closed on 4/16/10; deed recorded on 4/28/10.
Photos from Property Shark and StreetEasy.
if the game is to try to accurately predict the actual sales value – as most of us understand it to be – then why would there be any bias…unless there are more bulls than bears or vice-versa?
oh yea i forgot one important variable. stupid buyers!
bkhabitant, you are missing the whole point of what the rest of us are talking about.
Of course a seller takes the highest price (all other things being equal).
Guys, come on. You’re taking two data sets about the same house and comparing the highest value in one set against the average value in a second set and you’re shocked that the average is lower?
slope farm, I know that the appraisal is the market value of the house and that the appraisals in the widget are readers opinions of what the house will sell for, but don’t you think that in the real world, real buyers (leave out the bottom fishers) of property bid their opinion of market (i.e, what they think the house will sell for)? In the real world, the seller gets to choose the most optimistic of the buyers. And yet we all think it is rational to compare this most optimistic of the buyers, the person who actually wins the bidding, against the average community sentiment of what the house is worth? There are probably a bunch of bidders who came in lower than the actual sale price, all of whom thought they were bidding market as well.
dibs is right, bk. The widget asks for your “appraisal” — i.e. the market value of the house. The market is set by actual sales, not by averages of bids. Presumably that is what people are doing, trying to assess the market value.
It is the difference between opining on what the house “should” sell for (“wishful thinking”)and predicting what the house will sell for.
And using the word outlier to compare sales with other bids on the same property is just silly. Analytically, the concept should refer to a sale that is out of tune with the market, and to show that you need comps (i.e., this house sold for 15% more than three others just like it that went on the last two months — that’s an outlier).
DIBS, the point I am making is that a buyer in the real world accepts the best, highest offer, not the average offer. If that is the case, then it does not make sense to compare the actual best, highest offer received with the average view of the widget as to what the house is worth. Yes, it is correct to say that the average widget price is lower than actual sale price and so the average widget appraisal did not correctly estimate the market, but of course it didn’t – you’re comparing the highest price in the real world with the price that the average widget responder thought the house was worth. A seller of a house is not looking for the average price; he is looking for the best price. Because of that difference, the average widget appraisal should very rarely be higher than actual sales price.
CJMorris –
LOL indeed. Last time I checked the S&P is still down 20% plus from the top and the market is flat looking back 10 years.
We are talking about residential RE here – people need a place to live regardless of the market. Comparing equity markets to residential market is a fools game (both on the bull AND bear side)
And btw while I generally would agree with you RE interest rates – the chaos in the Euro zone actually will continue to pressure our interest rates down in the short and Medium term.
and yes people are trying to skew the widget, but there continue to be more bears than bulls on price.
which is bullish for local real estate prices, btw.
The point is, bkhabitant, that everything we see sell with a widget guesstimate sells at a high “outlier” price. The whole market cannot be an outlier unlike what BHO, Miss Muffett and deadcatBounce would like you to believe.
antidope, “real good contortionist”? Are you serious? Did the sellers tell you they accepted the average bid? Because unless they did, you’re comparing apples to oranges.
On this forum, two-thirds of people thought that the house should sell for less than they fetched in the market. But one-third thought they should have sold for more. Are you telling me that the sellers actually did better selling the homes in the real world, where people actually put their money where their mouths are, than they would have done had each brownstoner appraiser shown up with cash and put an offer in for what they believe the houses to be worth?
Pretty clearly, the sellers took the highest bid they could achieve, not the average bid. They took the outlier bid. So why does it make sense to measure an outlier in the real world against the average in this forum? That seems like the logic of a contortionist if you ask me.