Open House Picks
Park Slope 398 Bergen Street FKG Real Estate Sunday 1-3 $1,875,000 GMAP P*Shark Park Slope 99 St. Marks Place Aguayo & Huebener Sunday 1-3 $1,595,000 GMAP P*Shark Bedford Stuyvesant 119 Bainbridge Street Brooklyn Properties Sunday 12-2 $1,300,000 GMAP P*Shark Crown Heights 1190 Dean Street Brown Harris Stevens Sunday 12-1:30 $985,000 GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
398 Bergen Street
FKG Real Estate
Sunday 1-3
$1,875,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
99 St. Marks Place
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 1-3
$1,595,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bedford Stuyvesant
119 Bainbridge Street
Brooklyn Properties
Sunday 12-2
$1,300,000
GMAP P*Shark
Crown Heights
1190 Dean Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 12-1:30
$985,000
GMAP P*Shark
Does anybody have any perspective here? I do not live in Crown Heights, I’ll start by saying. If some people were not risk takers, and loved old houses enough to talk themselves into taking on houses in fringe neighborhoods when everybody was telling them they were crazy to live in the ghetto, NO F*CKING PLACE in Brooklyn would be decent right now. Please note these people didn’t do it because they thought they’d make a bundle of dough off the investment. They did it to have a large and beautiful house to live and work in. Because most were artists and bohemians. You know, the very people who make New York City not Kansas.
So, everyone in Park Slope today can thank the pioneers in the 70s and 80s who went ahead and bought houses there, even when everyone else turned up their noses judgementally and told them they were nuts. As a result of their risk taking, Park Slope became a very good NYC neighborhood to live in. If it weren’t for those pioneers, the only option would still be Manhattan and today’s Park Slopers would only be able to afford a tiny coop apartment for their $2 million.
Of course some people are too darned entitled to thank anybody for anything.
Well, 7:07’s answer is a totally reasonable one. If you’re going to get huge amounts of enjoyment from living in a particular house, then it’s worth spending extra to get that house, even if it’ll be cheaper three years from now. (Because three years from now you won’t be able to buy it.) I just think 7:07’s attitude — essentially, indifference to how valuable the house will or won’t be three years from now — has become increasingly rare on the Brooklyn real estate scene.
6:04 Because I loved the house! Just had to have it!
Montrose, you may not have thought you were saying that real estate was a better investment than the S&P, but why else would you say if you had “investment income” you would “buy what you could” in Crown Heights? (Presumably using “investment income” means you’re not acting out of the goodness of your heart, but because you want to make money on your investment.)
More importantly, your analogy to Park Slope in the 1970s is totally flawed. If Park Slope brownstones had tripled in value between 1972 and 1978, then it would, in fact, have been crazy to buy a Park Slope brownstone in 1978 using “investment income,” because you were pretty much guaranteed to make an average return at best. (And before you say, wait, even an “expensive” brownstone in 1978 is worth 10 times that today, remember that an S&P 500 index fund is worth 17 times what it was in 1978.) The reason not to buy in Crown Heights or Bedford Stuyvesant today is that homes there have gotten overpriced because of the recent bubble, and they are going to be less valuable, not more, three years from now. All your talk of the value of the neighborhood, etc., doesn’t change the simple fact that there is a reasonable price at which to buy property in Crown Heights and there is an unreasonable one. And a million dollars to live on Dean Street in Crown Heights is unreasonable. End of story.
6:02, whatever. I am merely stating my opinion that I think Crown Heights will improve over time, and investing here will be a smart move. If you don’t agree, fine. I wasn’t having a discussion of whether or not real estate was a better investment over the S&P 500. I am not a stock broker, and do not even pretend that I can have an informed discussion about the stock market, or higher forms of investing. I do know my neighborhood, and I believe in it. I think my enthusiasm is similar to those in Park Slope in the early 70’s, when people who bought fabulous old brownstones there were thought to be insane. They did not buy looking to sell out for millions 30 years later, they bought because they loved old houses, the beauty and craftsmanship that comes with it. They also believed that Park Slope could once again be a viable, beautiful neighborhood, and they were right. I would invest, had I some money, and do my bit for improving my neighborhood, because I have a stake in it, not just because it would inflate my net worth. I believe in Crown Heights. If that makes me an idiot and a coward (WTF?) then fine.
a million dollars to live in a glorified ghetto.
only in america.
People in Crown Heights and Bed Stuy constantly have to reassure themselves (and the entire brownstoner community) how happy they are with their homes and neighborhood.
interesting….
6:02, Montrose is a coward and an idiot. You came to the wrong place to find a serious discussion of real estate.
5:56 PM I hear you… I just a brought for the same price in Stuyvesant Hts. My kitchen in bathrooms looks like something out of the Brady Bunch but other parts of the house have not been touched in 120 years Thank God. I am so happy living in BS. I thought I would be sad to leave Park Slope which I love but I feel like this area is more like home….