Open House Picks: Apartments
Clinton Hill 93 Lexington Avenue Loft Co-op Anne Peabody Sunday 1-3 $1,500,000 GMAP Brooklyn Heights 75 Livingston Street, #6C 2 BR Co-op Corcoran Sunday 12-2 $1,075,000 GMAP Park Slope 478 3rd Street, #4L 3 BR Co-op Aguayo & Huebener Sunday 1-3 $979,000 GMAP Williamsburg 450 Manhattan Avenue, #5A 2 BR Condo The Developers Group Sunday…
Clinton Hill
93 Lexington Avenue
Loft Co-op
Anne Peabody
Sunday 1-3
$1,500,000 GMAP
Brooklyn Heights
75 Livingston Street, #6C
2 BR Co-op
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2
$1,075,000 GMAP
Park Slope
478 3rd Street, #4L
3 BR Co-op
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 1-3
$979,000 GMAP
Williamsburg
450 Manhattan Avenue, #5A
2 BR Condo
The Developers Group
Sunday 1-4
$799,000 GMAP
Regarding the CH property, I think people are being a little unfair. It looks like a beautifully done loft. It’s understandable that some people may find real lofts dark and not to their tastes, but this seems well-done for the genre. I think the real problem is the size. At 2400′, the price is too high. I think it would sell if it was half the size and half the price.
Regarding what would happen to NYC real estate if the dollar strengthened:
The real answer is that no one can say with any certainty. Economic systems are complex and interdepemndent in ways that are not fully understood.
For example, why is the dollar so weak now? Many possible answers, personally I begin by looking at the growth in the money supply, which has been HUGE. (Look at M2) Nobody talks about this–it’s too boring and convoluted. If Federal reserve policy suddenly started to contract the money supply (highly unlikely as the economy needs the stimulus) the dollar would strengthen and home prices nation wide including NY would go down. However, in the real world no one can say when, how or why the dollar will begin to make a comeback. Eventually it will–and when it does we will all be scratching our heads trying to figure out what it all means, just like today. In the meantime, I hope prices come down so I can afford a place to live. LOL.
most of us are already priced out of the market, 3:14. I think the reality at this point is that unless sellers are willing to price aggressively, they risk having properties sit for a very long time, unless they really have something quite exceptional to offer. There’s always another apartment around the corner, you know? Like others, we are renting for now, and waiting for prices to come down. At worst, we see them stabilizing – in which case, no rush to buy something that is overpriced or doesn’t really meet all our criteria. I think a lot of sellers are not used to this new reality though. Maybe it will change in the spring – who knows? Can’t see why it would – but then, I can’t figure out why prices have gone up so drastically over the past few years in the first place – not a rational market.
Yes, 2:58, I agree about the vicious cycle. This has been our dilemma–we finally found a fixer in Ditmas that we can swing even if we don’t get the very most we could for our coop (we looked for years in PS but finally concluded that it’s close to impossible to trade up to a house in this hood).
So here’s where the choice comes in: we could still try to go for top dollar and continue the trend or opt not to. I’m not saying go back to 2004/5–actually, that’s when we bought our coop so we’d take a hit there. But we shouldn’t keep expecting a huge appreciation every year and pricing our places to secure that…or we’ll price everyone out of the market. I’m not being altruistic…just realistic.
It’ll happen 3:05, if it’s not already that widespread.
Buyers should simply start inundating brokers with offers at 20% below the ask. Get them used to that level of bids.
1:58/2:48, I tip my hat to you – but where are you moving to? Philosophically, I agree with you, but the market right now is like a vicious circle that brings out the worst in everyone. How can you afford to buy something if you don’t sell for top dollar? I really am curious. We are planning to sell our place and while we’d like to avoid the craziness, we need to make enough that we in turn can afford the next place. That said, since we have cash in hand from another source, we’d happily see the prices decline to 2004 or even 2005 levels – that is, if houses became more affordable, we’d happily sell our apt for less than the typical prices now… Who will be the first to stop the cycle of greediness?
I think the poster discussing the rarity of PS 3BR’s has a good point – it’s very hard to find ones with “real” 3BRs. We actually own one ourselves, and what makes it so special is that it has 3 exposures which allows us to have real windows in each room. Our smallest bedroom is about 9 x 12 but has a huge closet and a very big window and high ceilings, so even that relatively small room works as a real bedroom (easily fits twin bed, desk, bookshelf, etc. We also have 2 BA, outdoor space, and storage. We looked really hard to find this, and found that even less well laid-out 3BR’s were rare. Brokers all tell us that due to the rarity, there is a premium added – given the cost of houses these days, we often find that it is hard to find a house that significantly improves our living space (though believe me, we’re looking!). For example, if you buy a 16 x 40 house (pretty typical in the affordable townhouse range), you can only get 2 BR’s on top floor, then you have to figure out where to put 3rd BR – either on parlor level or garden. In the end, you pay a big price increase for a larger common space and going up and down stairs a lot. That said, I do think the market for 2 BR’s should certainly be a little better, since there’s more of them – supply is a big factor in the current market – in fact, I think it’s lack of inventory which is propping up demand…
Yes, it’s in the center slope…and 1100 square feet. So I know if I went with a broker, they’d push us much higher. But I just don’t see why PS-ers are continuing the insulting asking price trend. Few of us got into a market like this (or even could have).