Last Week's Biggest Sales
1. PARK SLOPE $3,150,000 615 Third Street GMAP (left) When this 4,552-square-foot brick and limestone two-family was a House of the Day in February, it was asking $3.8 million; the price was cut to $3.4 mil the next month. The house, which was built by an architect for himself in 1899, last sold for $2,850,000…
1. PARK SLOPE $3,150,000
615 Third Street GMAP (left)
When this 4,552-square-foot brick and limestone two-family was a House of the Day in February, it was asking $3.8 million; the price was cut to $3.4 mil the next month. The house, which was built by an architect for himself in 1899, last sold for $2,850,000 in mid-2006. Entered into contract on 4/21/09; closed on 5/28/09; deed recorded on 6/10/09.
2. FORT GREENE $2,250,000
316 Cumberland Street GMAP (right)
House o’ the Day writeup on this in April, when it was listed for $2,295,000, went as follows: “316 Cumberland Street has a huge parlor floor to die for, with intricate plaster ceilings and an extension that houses the modern kitchen. The house has also been upgraded recently with all new systems and windows as well. It’s being used as a one-family but the ground-floor can easily be converted to a rentable apartment. All this sounds great but it will be interesting to see if it can pull off a price that’s similar to some of the nicer homes currently on the market in Park Slope.” Question answered. Entered into contract on 5/7/09; closed on 6/1/09; deed recorded on 6/12/09.
3. GRAVESEND $1,890,500
1927 East 1st Street GMAP
This is a 1,440-sf, two-family house, according to Property Shark. Entered into contract on 5/19/09; closed on 6/1/09; deed recorded on 6/10/09.
4. BAY RIDGE $1,300,000
135 86th Street GMAP
A 4,923-sf, three-family, according to PropShark. Entered into contract on 3/10/09; closed on 6/4/09; deed recorded on 6/10/09.
5. MIDWOOD $1,200,000
462 East 27th Street GMAP
A 2,385-square-foot, two-family house, says Property Shark. Entered into contract on 4/24/09; closed on 5/27/09; deed recorded on 6/10/09.
Photos from Property Shark.
Miss Muffet,
But you specifically said that you agreed with M4L and that the Ft. Greene house would sell for 1.8 million. You were over 400K off.
You have also said repeatedly that we are down to what, 2004 prices, and the Park Slope house sold for 2,850,000 in 2006 and sold today in 2009 for 300K over its 2006 price.
I appreciate your viewpoint, but it doesn’t really hold much water when you are proven wrong with specific data and then you brush it aside.
am surprised by by how quickly & strong that ft greene place sold for. ft greene is hot now cause we even have a huge park slope booster cheering for it.
BTW, besides Nokilissa, who is shopping at this high atmospheric budget? This is nice to know transactions. As DIBS said these buyers couldn’t care about 200-300k diff, that’s a different world from us folks with modest budgets.
11217 – I agree with lechacal that “Biggest Sales” are not a great barometer of the market since they are by definition outliers. Lack of inventory has been a big reason propping up some sales, but there seems to be growing inventory as many homes are asking too much and just lingering. But for sure, there are always exceptions to the rule.
I don’t see anyone extrapolating anything here. No one is trying to say that these 2 sales are indicative of the broader market I don’t think. But to use these two sales as an indication of anything negative is also quite silly.
It is what it is…2 gorgeous houses sold fast and for great prices. End of story.
Lechacal…I am still a firm believer that there are some people who buy homes with no thought as to “getting his money back out anytime soon.” For some, these homes are like collecting fine artwork or jewelry. You want to have it, and will pay a premium for it. Added bonus: you get to live in it and enjoy for as long as you please.
7182713: In that case I am even more surprised that they didn’t get a much better deal. Sellers dream of getting buyers who are all cashed up and not particularly motivated by price. Maybe this was one. But extrapolate from this a broader market trend at your peril.
lechscal – 3rd street closed in a month – suggesting a cash buyer – this is significant…
“In any event I don’t think the biggest sales of the week are a good indication of the broader market.”
Agreed Senor Jackal. Though it is interesting to track particular properties that you like. I really liked that Cumberland house. Would love to live in that area and loved the reno so for me its interesting to see if what I like sells or not.
How about a weekly listing of the properties longest on the market – check out streeteasy – it offers that as an option. Some very nice brownstones are not selling. Or, how about a listing of properties taken off of the market because they couldn’t sell? I think the open house picks 6 months later are at least a somewhat random sample and offer much less support for team bull.
Even that weekly listing offers more attractive properties but week after week, the properties north of a million aren’t selling. There are well-known finance hurdles right now. No way team bull advances without that working itself out first. Maybe it will, I have little to base my opinion on, but it seems to me mortgages rates are heaing north and there is little reason to think banks are going to open up the spigots again. Until then, team bear will ignore “last week’s biggest” sales as an unrepresentative sample.
I would have expected the 3rd Street place to trade for under $3 million. Maybe closer to $2.75 million, and frankly I wouldn’t have been particularly shocked by a $2.5 million price. I am not familiar with the Fort Greene property and can’t offer a view on that price. I have been predicting for some time that prices would hold up better for prime single owner properties on prime park blocks than in the rest of the market, though I question whether this particular buyer will be able to get his money back out any time soon.
These data points do not change my view that there is a very strongly negative bias in the condo market, particularly anything even close to a fringe area, and a negative bias in the medium to high end condo and coop markets.
In any event I don’t think the biggest sales of the week are a good indication of the broader market. From what I see, there is, to my surprise, actually a fair amount of stagnation in the high-end Park Slope brownstone market. For whatever reason this buyer was willing to pay this price for this property. It would be reckless to extrapolate from this data point that there are many buyers being willing to pay similar prices for similar properties.