Market Predictions for 2006: Neighborhood Picks
In what is now becoming an annual tradition, we invite you to share your thoughts and predictions for the Brooklyn housing market in 2006. Like last year, we’re particularly curious to hear your neighborhood “longs” and “shorts”. On a risk-adjusted basis, we’re most bullish on Prospect Heights and Carroll Gardens and, relatively speaking, would bet…
In what is now becoming an annual tradition, we invite you to share your thoughts and predictions for the Brooklyn housing market in 2006. Like last year, we’re particularly curious to hear your neighborhood “longs” and “shorts”. On a risk-adjusted basis, we’re most bullish on Prospect Heights and Carroll Gardens and, relatively speaking, would bet against Williamsburg. Overall, though, we don’t think 2006 will look at all like 2005, which was marked by huge surges in prices in some rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. From where we sit, 2006 is looking like a year for the market to take a breath and digest all the rapid-fire changes that have occurred in recent years. Barring a big move upward in rates, we think prices will more-or-less move sideways. In our own little corner of Brooklyn, the big test will be whether the upscaling of Fulton Street can extend beyond Fort Greene. Man, could we use a gourmet market in Clinton Hill! Anyway, that’s how we see it. But what do we know. We’d rather hear from you.
Happy New Year.
Brownstoner
Yes Babs, it is the Crown St School. There’s no connection to Medgar Evers College though.
I find that the parents of most my daughter’s playmates really never considered schools when they bought in “The Manor”. Now that the babies they moved in with are getting to school age, the pressure is on. We’re not totally exempt either. My husband & I, both products of NYC public schools, feel we got great educations(mutiple college scholarship offers bear this out), so our daughter will start there. However if it isn’t a good fit, we will go private or even homeschool.
Is that the Crown school Nativegal? That is a good school — does it have any connection w. Medgar Evars College? I think the high school near there does.
What’s funny is most of the houses in Lefferts Manor aren’t zoned for this school, they’re zoned for PS 375 or 92, neither of which is as good (375 in particular is terrible). Probably the people buying there don’t intend to send their kids to public school anyway.
There’s a 1 family house for sale on my block (Lefferts Ave between Rogers and Nostrand), but you’ve probably seen it already — it’s listed with Corcoran and they’re asking $649K, which is high in my opinion, considering that this was flipped less than a year ago and the all that the new owner did before putting it back on the market was to rip out one kitchen and renovate the other, turning it from a two family to a one.
My block is zoned for PS 91 on Albany Ave, which has better scores than 375 for sure, but your daughter could stay in her current school based on what people above have said.
But the de-facto segregation of public schools in most areas of Brooklyn is really a shame. I know this is not new news, but I don’t think it looks good for the future.
Regarding schools I totally agree with linusvanpelt. There are plenty of good public schools at the elementary level, where an involved parent can get a great education for their child(ren). It’s the middle schools that are a problem.
We chose our house in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens based on the our daughter being zoned for PS161, which is K-8. It’s a school that has been good for decades, but because it’s probably 99% black, most of the non-black newcomers to the neighborhood won’t even think of sending their kids there. My “Light, Bright & Damn near white” looking kid will just have to deal. Since there’s a yeshiva right next door, I’m pretty sure she won’t be the whitest kid they see all day. Not having to scramble to find a good public middle school, or shlep an extra 30mins+, is just another reason why we’re looking for a second house in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
See?
Public schools are very important to renters. They are also a significant part of the real estate market. The higher the rent the high the value of a 2 to 4 family home.
Clearly based on the lack of discussion regarding schools, this is not a factor at all in real estate
Good point about PS 230. A lot of the discussion above makes it sound like, for any home owner, it’s either 321 or private school for your kids. But there are a number of good elementary schools in and around brownstone neighborhoods — each with their flaws, maybe, and maybe without top-flight amenities, but safe, supportive schools with involved parents and teachers where a kid can get a good education. PS 154 in Windsor Terrace is perfectly good. In Park Slope, besides PS 39 about which I’m biased, there’s PS 107, and PS 124 on 4th Avenue is way underrated. PS 282 in North Slope is a good school that, to be honest, I bet a lot of locals are afraid of because the student body is mostly black, but black middle-class families from around Brooklyn go out of their way to send their kids there.
These are just the schools I’m familiar with, and I’m sure there are plenty of elementary schools in gentrifying neighborhoods that I’d never send my child to, but people talk about it like there are 2 or 3 public schools in all of Brooklyn worth using. Not true.
The gifted program at PS 230 was simply AMAZING! The bus picked up my kid at the corner. It kicked the ass of the over-crowded mess they have PS 321 which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overrated and it’s only going to worse as more students try to attend as those many crapshack condos come online – just look at what happened to the former playground at 321.
If you have a child already enrolled in a District 15 school you can move anywhere. They have the right to remain at the school until the terminal grade. So, if a child is a Kindergartener at 321 and you move to Clinton Hill, the child can stay at 321 until fifth grade.
I don’t think for the neighborhoods in D15 school zoning is a big issue. If you are zoned for one of the underperforming schools you can have your child tested for the gifted program, apply for a variance to other schools and if these don’t work tell the Region if your child is forced to attend the zoned school you will homeschool.
The problem lies with middle school. Last year 20% of fifth graders did not get accepted to any of their four choices. Families ranked their choices in order of preference. So many families opted for D15 schools that they couldn’t accomodate them all and if a child didn’t get into the first choice they didn’t get into the other three. Eventually, this worked itself out.
The fourth grade test scores factor heavily. Last year’s cut off for MS51 was 660 for both verbal and math (think SAT). These are the scores needed for 51 before the school will even consider a student. Over 1000 applied and 300 are accepted.