Last Week's Biggest Sales
1. COBBLE HILL $3,050,000 148 Baltic Street GMAP The two-family home at 148 Baltic Street was asking $2,985,000….this baby sold over ask! The listing describes the house as such: “This 20′ wide Cobble Hill townhouse configured as an owner’s triplex over a rental was gut renovated 8 years ago. Beautiful 19th century details blend seamlessly…
1. COBBLE HILL $3,050,000
148 Baltic Street GMAP
The two-family home at 148 Baltic Street was asking $2,985,000….this baby sold over ask! The listing describes the house as such: “This 20′ wide Cobble Hill townhouse configured as an owner’s triplex over a rental was gut renovated 8 years ago. Beautiful 19th century details blend seamlessly with the overlay of contemporary design.” Entered into contract on 2/24/11; closed on 5/18/11; deed recorded on 5/26/2011.
2. PARK SLOPE $1,962,500
288 7th Street, #2 GMAP
288 7th Street got a lot of talk when we called the converted building “just plain weird, with massing and proportions that don’t really work in our opinion and an overall look that’s more Disney than Old New York.” Checking in last month there was only one unit left. This particular unit is a three bedroom which had an ask of $2M. Entered into contract on 12/16/10; closed on 4/29/2011; deed recorded on 5/26/11.
3. PARK SLOPE $1,850,000
395 7th Street GMAP
395 7th Street was a HOTD in February. We said, “The one-family pad is in good shape and has been recently renovated. It’s major drawback is its size: It’s only 17.5 feet wide and three stories tall.” Asking price was $1,775,000. Another sell over ask last week. Entered into contract on 3/1/2011; closed on 5/2/2011; deed recorded on 5/27/11.
4. MIDWOOD $1,750,000
910 Avenue K GMAP
A two-family house with 1,576 square feet. Entered into contract on 2/7/2011; closed on 4/15/11; deed recorded on 5/23/11.
5. WILLIAMSBURG $1,527,375
55 Havemeyer Street, #55 GMAP
55 Havemeyer Street is a three-unit condo building that looks like it just sold out. The listing says “Each of the 3 newly built TH condos has an interior of approx 3400 sq ft or more comprised of 3+ bedrooms w/ 4.5 baths and exterior space of approx 200 sq ft or more.” Entered into contract on 4/18/2011; closed on 4/18/11; deed recorded on 5/27/11.
It looks like 7th Street is the new hot epicenter of action in Brooklyn.. $1.85m over asking for for a 3 story / 17.5′ wide house and nearly $2m for an APARTMENT between 4th & 5th Ave.. Hot daawwwwg!
I’m quite impressed with the prices at 288 7th. I never thought of that as a $2m-for-a-3br-condo block, but as I’ve said, I’ve given up guessing what people will pay for their piece of the Slope.
It looks like 148 Baltic went for just over $1000/sq.ft.
For an impeccably renovated house in certain areas of Brownstone Brooklyn this will be the new normal.
What impeccably renovated means is up for interpretation. However, I’m familiar with 148 and they did a beautiful job.
Why are people always surprised by multiple bids and markets that don’t tank on schedule? People tend to overvalue their own house, and undervalue everyone else’s? Predictions are made to be proven wrong, and what actually happens is predicted by very few people, and those people are not consistent in their predicting.
There is a limited supply of well maintained townhouses in the areas of Brooklyn being discussed – all you need is for two people to want the same house for the price to hold a certain level. This should be a surprise to no one. Also, many of the houses that were distress sales of any sort have been flushed out by now, some in the past few months of uptick activity.
That doesn’t mean the Brooklyn market is immune. It can fall just like any other. But the point is that none of us here can predict with any certainty the conditions that will bring that about. While the exact price of a given house can be debated, you can’t say that there is any lack of interest in these houses.
If that is how you want to think of it, but characterizing high value neighborhoods as micro bubbles could almost be an oxymoron. Wealthy people have always been exempt from the real pain of a recession, if they are feeling pain well then they’re really not rich, are they? It’s only a bubble if you think that thousands of Wall Street boys looking down their noses at anything less than a 7 figure bonus is a fleeting phenomena. And, as our government has shown, we will risk national insolvency rather then allow the current business model to collapse.
We’re talking extreme skews in the distribution of wealth. It’s not a bubble unless you think the distribution of wealth and income is coming in for a correction any time soon. I see no signs, do you? Politically, the ruling class seems rather content with a 9% official unemployment rate (which is at least twice that if you count the discouraged/no longer looking and the unwilling part-timers). The financial industry enjoys record profits while median household income is barely more than it was 35 years ago. What a country.
Looks like the Brooklyn real estate market is back up again. I wouldn’t call it a bubble. The few who are doing well in this economy want to live in Brooklyn, and there aren’t enough brownstones and good schools to go around. That’s not a bubble, even though it will have its ups and downs like anything else.
We are headed into another tech bubble, though. Watch for a bunch of junk to IPO after LinkedIn. But other than the coming tech bubble, I’m not hopeful about the overall state of the economy and employment in the next decade. We need to follow Germany’s example and get some good high-end manufacturing going, be fiscally prudent, offer free health care and education for everybody, shut down those nuclear reactors — but cook like the French.
so we’re really talking about micro-bubbles?
148 Baltic goes over $3,000,000 and although I love the neighborhood it isn’t the first place that springs to mind when I’m showing places to all those billionaires looking for a home in NYC. 288 7th collectively sold for over $5,000,000. The billionaires might be pushing condo prices higher at 15 CPW but they aren’t the ones shaping the current market in places like Cobble Hill and Park Slope, people who work and want to live in New York City on a day to day basis are doing it. If anything, I get the sense that there is a huge amount of pent up demand, people who have been sitting on the sidelines for the last five years are tired of it and whenever anything remotely nice comes on the market lately it is gone in a flash, usually over ask.
Hey, don’t believe me, see for yourself, go out with openhousejunkie next Sunday and see the kind of frenzy that envelops a new listing in a good neighborhood. Should we apologize for not being an over built suburb outside of Phoenix where prices plummeted and aren’t coming back any time soon or should we recognize New York City for the unique place that it is, inhabited by people who clearly have a lot of money and are willing to spend it for a nice place to live? Tell you what, Brownstones Half Off, if you want to put your money where your mouth is and you actually own anything in a nice neighborhood that you’d be willing to sell for one third off comps, even one quarter off comps, I’ve got a few buyers who would love to meet you.