Last Week's Biggest Sales
Sweet premium on the Prospect Heights house. Aside from that, however, it was a pretty sluggish week, with no sales over $2 mil. 1. PROSPECT HEIGHTS $1,820,000 401 Park Place GMAP (left) Asking $1,695,000 when we had it as an open house pick in early March. 2,495-sf, 1-fam house. Deed recorded 6/19. 2. BOERUM HILL…
Sweet premium on the Prospect Heights house. Aside from that, however, it was a pretty sluggish week, with no sales over $2 mil.
1. PROSPECT HEIGHTS $1,820,000
401 Park Place GMAP (left)
Asking $1,695,000 when we had it as an open house pick in early March. 2,495-sf, 1-fam house. Deed recorded 6/19.
2. BOERUM HILL $1,725,000
233 Dean Street GMAP (right)
House originally listed in January for $1,750,000, according to Street Easy, and went into contract in mid-May. 3,780-sf, 4-fam. Deed recorded 6/18.
3. PARK SLOPE $1,485,000
172 Sterling Place, Unit 7 GMAP
3-bed, 3-bath last sold for $1,485,000 almost exactly a year ago, according to Street Easy. Deed recorded 6/17.
4. PARK SLOPE $1,400,000
70 8th Avenue, Unit 1 GMAP
3-bed, 2.5 bath originally listed for $1,595,000 last September, according to Street Easy. Deed recorded 6/20.
5. BOROUGH PARK $1,325,000
1552 55th Street GMAP
2,640-sf, 2-fam house. Deed recorded 6/20.
Photos from Property Shark.
4:03 – Me again. All very fair points.
I seem to have inadvertently engaged some sort of angry person on the subject of how long first time buyers stay in their homes. Is this the Biff person that everyone always complains about?
3:27 posting again.
Before I bought, I made the decision that the only way I could support buying was if I was going to stay in the house for 10 years. The closing costs + exit costs are just too high. In NYC, if you buy a house for $100, you need to sell for $110 to break even.
On the flip side, I’ve known a lot of people who rented so that they could “save a bundle” and use the money to for a downpayment. In my experience, the majority don’t end up saving a bundle. They spend the money elsewhere.
At the end of the day, for me, the decison to buy or rent was not strictly a financial one. I’m raising a family and wanted to do it in a house. There were and still are very few townhouses available for long term rental. When my elderly parents come to visit, I like them to have a real guest room, not an air mattress. I guess that’s a form of consumption, but to me it’s the best money I’ll ever spend.
I agree with your comment about the freedom of renting. On the other hand, if I ever want to downsize, I’m pretty sure I could rent my place out at a price that would at least cover the carrying costs. While owning gives me less freedom now, over time I think it will give me more freedom. As a paydown the mortgage over time I’ll have an asset to sell or rent out for incomme in retirement.
Here are a couple of sources:
“The average first-time buyer only stays in their first home for four years.” http://www.cityes.org/first-time-home-buyer.html
“the average homeowner moves every 5 to 7 years…” http://www.thinkglink.com/Mistakes_Homeowners_Make_When_Refinancing_Their_Home.htm
I would argue that New Yorkers move more frequently than Americans. More personal anecdotes – my New Yorker friends seem to be getting transferred to and from London, Hong Kong, etc. on a pretty regular basis.
3:53pm great point…THe only people that have money in the bank are ones that sold places…THese people make NYC sound like the lifestyle is cheap and everyone is saving money for this big correction. LOSERS…
IF you are paying $3500/month in rent waiting to buy a place and hoping for a correction dont u realize that if you rent for the next 3 years is $126,000!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANd people are worried about negative equity when you could have bought a place say for $700k right now with low interest rates but instead kept waitng to buy for the next 3 years with rising interest rates…
GREAT JOB…
New Yorkers hold onto their bought property probably longer than any other city in the country, on the whole. Your friends and family are idiotic flippers, apparently.
No one goes through the trouble of buying in New York if they don’t plan to stay. The comment that “young buyers don’t last 5 years” is asinine. If they are young buyers, they just bought, so how would you know if they are staying or not.
Talk about a stupid comment.
3:46 – All I can offer you are personal anecdotes based on friends and family who have bought and sold in the city over the years.
3:38 – It’s so easy to re-rent an apartment in the slope I don’t think getting sued by LL is a realistic possibility. But sure, I guess it could happen. (not that I would put myself in that situation in any event – love my place, LLs are fine)
Where are all these renters in the government statistics that say that most Americans save NOTHING???!! Or negative, actually!?
Somehow we are blessed with thousands of them here in New York who rent but have HUGE, FAT BANK ACCOUNTS!!!??
I say bull shit. Most renters I know (even high salary renters) live paycheck to paycheck and have less than 5K in the bank and 25K in debt.
“Many young buyers in New York done even last 5 years.”
I’d like to see your information to back this statement up, please.