Open House Picks
Prospect Heights 203 Prospect Place Corcoran Sunday 1-3 $1,999,999 GMAP P*Shark Park Slope 387 2nd Street Brooklyn Properties Sat 2-4, Sun 2-4 $1,850,000 GMAP P*Shark Prospect Lefferts Gardens 201 Lincoln Road Brown Harris Stevens Sat 2-4, Sun 2-4 $1,095,000 GMAP P*Shark Bedford Stuyvesant 295 Macon Street Douglas Elliman Sunday 1-3 $985,000 GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Heights
203 Prospect Place
Corcoran
Sunday 1-3
$1,999,999
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
387 2nd Street
Brooklyn Properties
Sat 2-4, Sun 2-4
$1,850,000
GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
201 Lincoln Road
Brown Harris Stevens
Sat 2-4, Sun 2-4
$1,095,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bedford Stuyvesant
295 Macon Street
Douglas Elliman
Sunday 1-3
$985,000
GMAP P*Shark
But the top of the market isn’t $1.525 — 52 Midwood went for substantially above asking and ultimately sold for $1.675. Real estate agents in the area have guessed it could have gone for $1.8 with a broker, and the fact that there were offers so quickly after it was listed in the Times, and for so much more than asking price, seems to suggest that the ceiling potentially was not reached with that property.
Brown Harris has that smaller house on Midwood II one block away now for sale for roughly half that price at $899K, which, considering the size (two floors and an English windowed basement compared with 52’s four floors and an entirely submerged basement), seems like a pretty fair markdown and also demonstrates a good amount of range in the neighborhood.
Also, perhaps sometime can explain this to me, but I don’t quite understand why people keep trumpeting summer’s effect on the neighborhood. I see no radical change on the sidewalks now that the warm weather has arrived. There seems to be the same mix of people that drew me to the area, and no more loitering than I witnessed when I first arrived in PLG late last year.
Frankly, all this trepidation and reading of tea leaves about the summer weather’s effect on real estate prices in PLG seems more than a little absurd. If another spectacular place like 52 came on the market tomorrow, it would sell just as quickly, and at just as high a price.
But with such a limited inventory of old houses all over Brooklyn, dj, a seller might actually be pricing not just based on properties in his own neighborhood (though of course that’s the most relevant comp) but based on properties in other neighborhoods. Brooklyn is a unique market that way. (It’s what’s dumb about all the catty competitive attacks on various neighborhoods – people who want their house value to go up should WANT the property values to do well in nearby neighborhoods.) If in more gentrified neighborhoods it gets to where you can’t even get a shell of a brownstone for less than $1.5 million, then it’s going to drive up prices though it seems artificially, in the other neighborhoods. Maybe even without multiple bids. Everybody’s houses, all of us, are connected. Simply because of this, which is relatively new trend for buyers – there is such huge huge interest in having a house instead of an apartment/condo now. And people are being priced out entirely of certain neighborhoods for houses. Then it gets people thinking more openly about other areas of Brooklyn.
Every single neighborhood seeing improvements now, all of them, have Park Slope to thank. As hot as say, Clinton Hill is now, please, nobody buying a house 5 years ago would have chosen CH over Park Slope if they could afforded the same size house in Park Slope.
I saw the Macon house on Sunday and thought the original detail was beautiful, but it is certainly not in move in condition. Location is great. Did anyone else see it? I think it’s overpriced, but I am new to the market, so i’d love to hear some second opinions.
There’s nothing socialist in my comment at all. My point is that in all other Brownstone neighborhoods there is a HUGE range of prices for brownstones. But in LM the range is miniscule because people compare their home to the top of the market, not to similar homes. Of course everyone will price their house higher than the last similar one, that is assumed. But it is absurd to price a far inferior home at just 20-30% below the top of the local market.
But you’re saying that doesn’t happen in any other neighborhood, dj? It’s going on all over Brooklyn. It’s what everyone here points out all the time, over and over. It does happen, and it might be silly, but it’s hardly unique to PLG. And how else do prices in any nabe go up? But by a seller asking more than others have asked, for similar properties? Again, here we see this anti-capitalist mentality here on brownstoner. This is reality. People will try and make money where there are opportunities to do so. However much it might offend all you socialists.
Anyway, we did see that the house at 181 Midwood dropped from $925,000 to $899,000. Might be worth attempting a lowball offer. What price range to you mean when you say “well under a million?” If it’s less than $850,000 that’s probably unrealistic for about anywhere in historic Brooklyn for a brownstone, wherever it’s located.
I don’t think the range of prices in LM/PLG is “confusing” at all. Look at BHS’s listings for Brooklyn Heights right now–townhouses range from 2.5M to 8M. By comparsion, if the top of the LM market is 1.55, then there should be townhouses for well under a million. I think that many LM houses are way overpriced because the owners say “that 4 story, mint-condition, totally renovated house with all of its original details and central AC sold for 1.5, so my unrenovated, much small, much less appealing house should sell for close to that.” Really, if the top of the market is around 1.5 then the houses currently priced at 1.2 should be about 1M.
It’s not that PLG is overpriced. It’s still priced under other neighborhoods. It’s because of that confusing range of prices you mention dj. Plenty people do look at houses in PLG but are not sure what they’re supposed to consider a good deal. The inventory is low, not a lot on the market at any given time AND on top of it what’s on the market are so distinct from one another. Whether it’s size or it’s inside the LM blocks or not, or it’s the date the house was built b/c the area is eclectic. We went inside an open house this weekend out of curiosity, and ended up answering a lot of questions for a woman who had come from elsewhere to look at the house. When it came to whether the house was priced accurately or not, we had no idea either! And not because we thought it was too expensive. It’s just a funny thing that way.
7:43, I am well aware of 52 Midwood, which is why I said “The Lefferts Manor market was strong in early spring.” Since then, there has been a definite drop in interest. I’ve been at the open houses and have chatted with other buyers and the general feeling is that area is overpriced in comparison to other options. Perhaps the difference is in the mid-range versus high-end (52 Midwood was certainly the nicest house I’ve ever seen in LM and in the very best location), but the houses currently on the market run a pretty big range, from 899K to 1.2M. And of course there is the annual drop in interest in LM once the weather gets hot and the lioterers start hanging out on all the street corners. I should know better than to bet on the market, but nontheless I’d bet that the current crop of offerings sell for well under asking. We’ll see…
DJ,
Just a few weeks ago, Brownstoner featured as a HOTD 52 Midwood Street, which was listed by owner for $1.525. It sold in a matter of days, for $150K above asking, and I believe set a new record for the neighborhood. Point being, I’m not sure I would say prices are down in PLG, at least not at the upper end of the spectrum.
The pace maybe has slowed a bit, but I think that’s only a function of what’s currently for sale. Most of the homes listed now are either a bit on the small side, need some work, or maybe aren’t in an ideal location. That said, this one on Lincoln and the two story on Midwood both seem to have some charming features. And Lincoln is especially appealing for anyone who doesn’t want to return it to a single family and needs the rental unit to offset a mortgage. I would guess both will sell before July 4th, and at close to asking price.