Last Week's Biggest Sales
1. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $5,000,000 118 Willow Street GMAP (left) When this 7,200-sf, 2-family brownstone was a House of the Day for the first time, in January ’08, it was listed for $8,000,000. The price was cut a few times and it was asking $6.8 mil when it was an Open House Pick last November. The…

1. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $5,000,000
118 Willow Street GMAP (left)
When this 7,200-sf, 2-family brownstone was a House of the Day for the first time, in January ’08, it was listed for $8,000,000. The price was cut a few times and it was asking $6.8 mil when it was an Open House Pick last November. The last price cut brought it down to $5.95 mil in January. Entered into contract on 6/15/09; closed on 8/4/09; deed recorded on 8/13/09.
2. FORT GREENE $2,700,000
53 South Elliott Place GMAP (right)
This 3,600-square-foot one-family was a House of the Day a couple of times, most recently last December, when it was listed for $3,495,000. Entered into contract on 2/9/09; closed on 7/29/09; deed recorded on 8/13/09.
3. PARK SLOPE $1,870,000
106 Park Place GMAP
This 16.67-foot-wide house was a House of the Day and Open House Pick a couple times, most recently in March ’08, when it was asking $2,495,000. The sellers bought it for $1,300,000 in 2006. Entered into contract on 5/1/09; closed on 6/30/09; deed recorded on 8/12/09.
4. South Slope $1,700,000
248 10th Street GMAP
This is a 2,400-square-foot, 2-fam, according to Property Shark. Entered into contract on 5/26/09; closed on 7/28/09; deed recorded on 8/14/09.
5. CLINTON HILL $1,600,000
125 Willoughby Avenue GMAP
When this 2-family was a House of the Day last June, it was listed for $2,100,000. By the time it was an Open House Pick last October, it was asking $1,795,000. The sellers bought it for $1,400,000 in 2005. Entered into contract on 1/7/09; closed on 3/3/09; deed recorded on 8/14/09.
Pics from Property Shark.
11217, hate to keep disagreeing with you but au contraie the fact that many homes are repeated as HOTD indicates to us that they are taking way too long to sell and not just because inventory is low. A classic sign of a bear market is prolong listing to sell time right? Please note every single time these HOTDs re-appear it has been with a significant price cut sometimes massive mind blowing price reductions. So while you may disagree with M4N for other reasons; the circular reasoning below is with all due respect frankly a sieve.
BTW even though we recently bought something M4N’s bearish analysis makes perfect sense for most buyers..operative word being “most”.
“The fact that most of these houses are listed more than once as HOTD, including the Garfield mansion today which we’ve already seen leads me to believe that inventory still remains at an all time low. There are literally a handful of nice brownstones on the market right now.
So few, that we’re even seeing repeats on a website devoted to covering Brownstones.
Until that changes, MoneyForNothing has no argument”.
“MFN:
but remember buyers can only buy a house a seller is willing to sell….”
Posted by: gemini10 at August 18, 2009 4:40 PM
So, supply side then? What you’re saying is that Sellers, by their willingness to sell to a buyer, can extract more than the buyer can afford?
Isn’t that how we got into this mess?
It takes 2 to tango. But it takes a buyer to purchase ultimately assuming you have something to sell.
The CAVERNOUS disconnect between the ask/bid spread on prime brooklyn (and non prime) real estate is the evidence that buyers ain’t buyin what you’re sellin.
And so you delist and hope for sunnier days ahead, or death by a thousand cuts.
But the buyer has to pay you what they can afford.
And one more thing, MFN: earlier you said you were on to the fact that some buyers might be asking for a ludicrous price, solely to accept significantly less and make the buyers feel like they are getting a bargain. But now you say you “guarantee” that they rejected lower offers and lost out on $ in the process.
The above represent two different scenarios, and you can’t possibly know what these sellers expectations were.
MFN, Clearly you didn’t read the posts earlier, since you’re just responding to them now. So I was simply stating the truth, and not giving you a dig at all. I had honestly (and naively) thought that if you *had* read in the comments how the prices have greatly risen on these properties in the last few years, you’d see that these sellers have not taken a loss at all.
But I was obviously unaware of your mindset. Rest assured, I am as baffled by your logic as you apparently are by mine. To each his own.
“I can guarantee they got offers that 12 months ago they thought were lowball, that were higher than the 25% haircuts they ultimately took, while wasting months and months of their lives. trying to sell.”
I hear your point about possibly losing money waiting for a better offer but your use of the word guarantee in the above sentence is kind of the attitude that I am objecting to. That kind of hyperbole devalues the otherwise very astute arguing of your position that you put forth.
MoneyForNothing–I think you are pretty much spot on about the prevailing pressures in the real estate market and how nothing in the landscape suggests anything but further declines. I do however also agree with 1842 that its hard to call the Park Place sellers and Fort Greene sellers people who made bad moves. Despite what everyone wants to believe about their own predictions and wishes for the market, when to buy and when to sell can’t be reduced to purely economic arguments. There are always life circumstances that create wild cards, rendering everyone’s boastful assumptions about what other people SHOULD do moot.
Posted by: 1842 at August 18, 2009 5:26 PM
but I don’t get the following comment from MFN:
“Look at how it turned out for those folks on Park Place in this thread. Or Fort Greene. Bad move.”
Not to be rude, but this is getting tiring.
My point was in response to someone saying “places are getting delisted b/c people are not accepting low-ball offers”
If you read what I wrote, I said, if you want to sell, and delist, or turn down offers because think the market is going to turn around in 6 months and those great offers are going to roll in …good luck.
It’s not what they made as a profit that matters if we are talking “where are we going”, not “what did they make”.
Had they priced the places, let’s say, 1/2 way between their absurd asks, which buyers obviously ignored, and what they went for ultiamtely after languishing, then they might have saved themselves $100K. So, lost profit.
Not accepting lower offers b/c you think you’ll get better ones in a few months, in this environment, is a sucker’s game. And risky.
For the 2 houses I cited here, I can guarantee they got offers that 12 months ago they thought were lowball, that were higher than the 25% haircuts they ultimately took, while wasting months and months of their lives. trying to sell.
Kris:
One last thing:
“are rude and hostile to those who disagree with them.”
You’re the mo-mo who pulled a “M4N, you don;t even read posts, do you?” as your first response to my post on 25% cuts from asking price.
SO check yourself, honestly. I never come blazing at people until they give a dig like that, and then can’t back it up with any real thoughtful posts built on detailed knowledge of the situation.
Seems your tact has been to bury your head in the sand and say no one can predict the future while calling me out for “not reading the posts” in your introduction to me.
11217, the square foot info is interesting, even if mileage vary because of condition.
Wasn’t Brooklyn Heights at $1,000/sf and Park Slope at $700/pf at peak? It’s nice to know there’s something inbetween the top and bottom — Clinton Hill at $400 sf.